wrote:
> I'm new to canning so I apologize for dumb questions in advance.......want
> to can some tomatoes and the majority of recipe's I've found say
> specifically to use bottled lemon juice, none that I have seen say why that
> is. I ran across these instructions today
> http://www.pickyourown.org/pressure_...g_tomatoes.htm and
> they say fresh or bottled is ok. I also am canning some salsa and I can not
> find one recipe that includes fresh lemon juice. I would prefer to use
> fresh lemon juice, but not sure it is safe........TIA

The bottled lemon juice is reconstituted to a standard acidity, so you
*know* will work in your recipes (especially canning recipes) The lemon
juice is not a significant flavor component, so it doesn't matter that
bottled lemon juice doesn't taste as good as fresh.

I just looked at that web site and it's actually pretty good. You can
use fresh lemon juice here because you are pressure canning the
tomatoes. (I didn't verify the processing times and the amount of acid
with another source.) But I wouldn't waste fresh lemon on it; if I had
an excess of fresh lemons I would freeze the juice.

If you are boiling water bath canning, you definitely want to use
bottled lemon juice -- it's pretty cheap in the quart bottles -- or use
citric acid crystals.