Canning tomato sauce questions

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yyz

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jul 12, 2019
Messages
2
Location
Las Vegas
So,

I got myself a dial-gauge pressure canner and I'm going to can some tomato sauce. I'm seeing conflicting numbers online for times. It looks like 12psi is good for my altitude (2100) but I've seen two different numbers for times. Presto's website says 15 minutes for pints or quarts. Other sites say 20 minutes for pints and 25 for quarts. In addition, I'd prefer not to add citric acid or lemon juice if I can help it (or at least add less than most sites say). I do realize that not adding acid may be dangerous which is why I'm looking at the times more closely. Will adding more time help guarantee that botulism is killed? Or will adding time hurt the flavor? Just curious on people's thoughts.

Thanks much for the feedback.

Chris
 
Welcome to the forum Chris!

I'm not big on canning, but I can (not intended) tell you that if you are pressure canning the tomatoes, you do not need to add any acid at all - that's only done to bring it to a safe pH to water can it, without pressure. Used to be unheard of, but there are so many low acid tomatoes now, it's a necessity when water canning.
 
I can (not intended) tell you that if you are pressure canning the tomatoes, you do not need to add any acid at all - that's only done to bring it to a safe pH to water can it, without pressure.

Didn’t know this. I do pressure canning but can’t offer any advice other than reading the manual and books.
 
The National Center for Home Food Preservation is the go-to resource for safe canning, because they do the testing without regard to profit. They say that all tomato products must be acidified in order to be safe: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_03/tomato_intro.html#acidification

Their recipe for canning tomato sauce is here: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_03/tomato_sauce.html

Thanks. I've read this over many times. I was confused about the table for the dial gauge times and pressures. It says for "Pints or Quarts", 20 minutes@7lbs/15 minutes@12lbs (for 2100 altitude). First I thought this was an "and" and now I guess I read it as an "or". I'm confused why they would publish two different times and pressures for either size jars.
 
Thanks. I've read this over many times. I was confused about the table for the dial gauge times and pressures. It says for "Pints or Quarts", 20 minutes@7lbs/15 minutes@12lbs (for 2100 altitude). First I thought this was an "and" and now I guess I read it as an "or". I'm confused why they would publish two different times and pressures for either size jars.

To give people safe options, I imagine.
 
In general, it's not safe to increase the jar size of a given recipe because the density might be different and the heat might not be able to penetrate to the center of the jar. So using the larger jar size requires more time.
 

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