Cathy, I can the half gallon glass jars of tomato juice. I have the same jars my grandmother used. I open one of them and I drink the whole thing right then and there. One of my favorites over all are home canned stewed tomatoes. I can't can enough of them.
The Ironic Chef wrote:Cathy, I can the half gallon glass jars of tomato juice. I have the same jars my grandmother used. I open one of them and I drink the whole thing right then and there. One of my favorites over all are home canned stewed tomatoes. I can't can enough of them.
It certianly doesn't get better than that does it IC?
It is wonderful that you have kept the same jars your own sweet Grandma used, how very neat! Thanks for sharing that, it warms my heart.It probably won't change anything, but safety standards have moved on since those early years and doing tomato juice in those large jars is now a safety issue.
Canning in 2-Quart Jars
Canning in 2-Quart Jars
I read that CanMan, it is interesting why they would not recommend tomato juice, as it is Acidic! Strange.....plus you add salt (a presevative) it just seems to me it would be fine if you had a very deep pressure canner and could can it properly. I always used ONLY a pressure canner for all my canning.
Not strange. Tomato are not as acidic as they used to be due to years of hybrid varieties to make them the way people want them. All canning recipes in the past 15-20 years have a requirement to add bottled lemon juice to the recipe to up the acidity since we don't know what the acidity is for individual tomatoes, especially ones out of our gardens.
Tomatoes are now rated at between 4.30 - 4.90 pH where acidic is any at or below 4.6 pH and those numbers my change even more.
It's a safe issue. Not much danger involved, but it is more of an issue with those old large 2-quart jars and getting temperature to penetrate all the way in.
"Salt" in canning is not a preservative and serves only as a seasoning.
As for pressure canning 2-quart jars, you cannot do it safely and there are no recipes published for doing do. If you are pressure canning "everything" you are running a serious food safety risk because you are not using tested times and temperatures. Just using a bigger hammer does not solve the problem in canning foods. Go to the National Center for Home Food Preservation and ask them, if you don't believe me.
Tomatoes are now rated at between 4.30 - 4.90 pH where acidic is any at or below 4.6 pH and those numbers my change even more.
It's a safe issue. Not much danger involved, but it is more of an issue with those old large 2-quart jars and getting temperature to penetrate all the way in.
"Salt" in canning is not a preservative and serves only as a seasoning.
As for pressure canning 2-quart jars, you cannot do it safely and there are no recipes published for doing do. If you are pressure canning "everything" you are running a serious food safety risk because you are not using tested times and temperatures. Just using a bigger hammer does not solve the problem in canning foods. Go to the National Center for Home Food Preservation and ask them, if you don't believe me.