Pressure canning Tomatoes

[mcnerd]

'Look weird', no. There might be a slight change in the tint as is the case for all food when it is cooked, but that's all and they should look invitingly fresh and eatable.

What exactly is strange? What recipe was used?

As for onions in the jar, they are for flavor and commercially processed pickles probably don't have them because they tend to be mushy and they may not survive well under their method of processing. I've seen small quantity producers add them to their jars however.

[MNTaxi]

Looked at them this morning and they look a lot different. Not a weird as last night, lol. Made a second batch today and they look real good.

I canned some tomatos in theor own juice again todayto and I am still loosing liquid. I payed very close attention to everything and did it by the book. Still loosing liquid. Only thing I can thing of is band and lid tightness. Bought ready to beat my head against the wall.

Is their always going to be some liquid lost?

[MNTaxi]

I used the Ball Book recipe.

[mcnerd]

If you are positive that the spring lids are only finger-tight, increase the headspace by 1/8". No more, and see if things improve.

Not all tomatoes are equal and they may be expanding more than the standard expected.

It's all a learning process. Don't let it upset you.

[Constance]

It is still safe to can your tomatoes in a water bath. There is something you can do with tomatoes by using the pressure canner, though...If you have Romas, you can peel them and then cold pack them whole into the jars. They will make their own juice in the canner.

By the way, if you lost juice in the canning process, it means you didn't leave enough head space when you filled the jars.
They say now not to tighten the bands too tightly, but I always screwed them on good and tight.

[MNTaxi]

It seams theliquide in all the jars is about 1.5 " from the lip when I pull them out.

I will try increasing the head space on the tomatos for next time. I have been doing a canner load every week or so.