I made salsa verde according to the Bernardin preserving guide,
leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Now that it has cooled and settled, the
headspace is below the shoulders of the jar. Anyone think I should be
concerned and reprocess in smaller jars, or maybe just leave it alone
because it'll be OK?

Kathi

If your jar seal is OK I wouldn't worry about it. Bernardin says that there
is no food safety issue with this type of situation, at worst case you could
be dealing with a food quality issue (some discolouring on top)

If you later open that jar and don't hear a nice pop i'd throw it out. You
could risk boiling it for 10 minutes before use to kill anything that may
have lived inside the jar during storage.

I canned apple pie filling before the holiday weekend, and my headspace
disappeared completely and I was concerned about it because I also had some
leakage. But my jars seemed to be sealed properly. When I opened up the
filling this weekend to make my pie I heard a nice loud pop which reassured
me everything was ok. After opening my filling sunk back down and magically
enough my headspace reappeared again. I must say it was one of the best
apple pie's I have ever eaten. I was confident enough to serve all of my
family and myself with it once I was confident in the seal itself.

We're all still alive.

PS: You have to be extra careful with tomatoes because they are borderline
on the acidity scale. Use vinegar in your recipe (can't remember if the
bernardin book does it or not), and pressure can those suckers. I wouldn't
boil water bath them even with some vinegar. Not worth the risk to me.

Jason

"Kathi" wrote in message
m...
I made salsa verde according to the Bernardin preserving guide,
leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Now that it has cooled and settled, the
headspace is below the shoulders of the jar. Anyone think I should be
concerned and reprocess in smaller jars, or maybe just leave it alone
because it'll be OK?

Kathi

Jason wrote:

PS: You have to be extra careful with tomatoes because they are borderline
on the acidity scale. Use vinegar in your recipe (can't remember if the
bernardin book does it or not), and pressure can those suckers. I wouldn't
boil water bath them even with some vinegar. Not worth the risk to me.

Jason


There's no need to add vinegar or lemon juice or citric acid to your
tomatoes if you pressure-can them. If you did have to add vinegar, you
would also need to add vinegar to your green beans, etc. :-P

If you BWB your tomatoes, use citric acid or lemon juice rather than
vinegar -- the amount of vinegar they tell you to add is enough to ruin
the taste of the tomatoes, but citric acid tastes OK. (Even commercial
canners add citric acid to their tomatoes.)

Best regards,
Bob

Jason wrote:

PS: You have to be extra careful with tomatoes because they are borderline
on the acidity scale. Use vinegar in your recipe (can't remember if the
bernardin book does it or not), and pressure can those suckers. I wouldn't
boil water bath them even with some vinegar. Not worth the risk to me.

Jason


There's no need to add vinegar or lemon juice or citric acid to your
tomatoes if you pressure-can them. If you did have to add vinegar, you
would also need to add vinegar to your green beans, etc. :-P

If you BWB your tomatoes, use citric acid or lemon juice rather than
vinegar -- the amount of vinegar they tell you to add is enough to ruin
the taste of the tomatoes, but citric acid tastes OK. (Even commercial
canners add citric acid to their tomatoes.)

Best regards,
Bob

With Salsa, I dont think it would hurt to add a small quantity of white 5%
acetic vinegar (to avoid discolouration). The recipes in the Bernardin guide
to home preserving I believe includes vinegar anyways. I'd consider adding
a small amount of vinegar to be a safety insurance policy on top of pressure
canning (at least for salsa).

But you're right. If you're just canning tomatoes I wouldn't add vinegar to
them either

Pressure canning is a must in either case.

Jason

"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
Jason wrote:

PS: You have to be extra careful with tomatoes because they are
borderline on the acidity scale. Use vinegar in your recipe (can't
remember if the bernardin book does it or not), and pressure can those
suckers. I wouldn't boil water bath them even with some vinegar. Not
worth the risk to me.

Jason


There's no need to add vinegar or lemon juice or citric acid to your
tomatoes if you pressure-can them. If you did have to add vinegar, you
would also need to add vinegar to your green beans, etc. :-P

If you BWB your tomatoes, use citric acid or lemon juice rather than
vinegar -- the amount of vinegar they tell you to add is enough to ruin
the taste of the tomatoes, but citric acid tastes OK. (Even commercial
canners add citric acid to their tomatoes.)

Best regards,
Bob

in article , Jason at
wrote on 13/10/04 11:12 AM:

With Salsa, I dont think it would hurt to add a small quantity of white 5%
acetic vinegar (to avoid discolouration). The recipes in the Bernardin guide
to home preserving I believe includes vinegar anyways. I'd consider adding
a small amount of vinegar to be a safety insurance policy on top of pressure
canning (at least for salsa).

But you're right. If you're just canning tomatoes I wouldn't add vinegar to
them either

Pressure canning is a must in either case.

Jason

"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
Jason wrote:

PS: You have to be extra careful with tomatoes because they are
borderline on the acidity scale. Use vinegar in your recipe (can't
remember if the bernardin book does it or not), and pressure can those
suckers. I wouldn't boil water bath them even with some vinegar. Not
worth the risk to me.

Jason


There's no need to add vinegar or lemon juice or citric acid to your
tomatoes if you pressure-can them. If you did have to add vinegar, you
would also need to add vinegar to your green beans, etc. :-P

If you BWB your tomatoes, use citric acid or lemon juice rather than
vinegar -- the amount of vinegar they tell you to add is enough to ruin
the taste of the tomatoes, but citric acid tastes OK. (Even commercial
canners add citric acid to their tomatoes.)

Best regards,
Bob


If you use a tested BWB recipe, pressure canning is definetly not a must.
Ellen
--

"Jason" wrote in message ...
With Salsa, I dont think it would hurt to add a small quantity of white 5%
acetic vinegar (to avoid discolouration). The recipes in the Bernardin guide
to home preserving I believe includes vinegar anyways. I'd consider adding
a small amount of vinegar to be a safety insurance policy on top of pressure
canning (at least for salsa).

But you're right. If you're just canning tomatoes I wouldn't add vinegar to
them either

Pressure canning is a must in either case.

Jason

"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
Jason wrote:

PS: You have to be extra careful with tomatoes because they are
borderline on the acidity scale. Use vinegar in your recipe (can't
remember if the bernardin book does it or not), and pressure can those
suckers. I wouldn't boil water bath them even with some vinegar. Not
worth the risk to me.

Jason


There's no need to add vinegar or lemon juice or citric acid to your
tomatoes if you pressure-can them. If you did have to add vinegar, you
would also need to add vinegar to your green beans, etc. :-P

If you BWB your tomatoes, use citric acid or lemon juice rather than
vinegar -- the amount of vinegar they tell you to add is enough to ruin
the taste of the tomatoes, but citric acid tastes OK. (Even commercial
canners add citric acid to their tomatoes.)

Best regards,
Bob

thanks for the tips, guys. I had the same thoughts - if the seal is
good, then the salsa should be OK, except for some discolouration on
the top. So I'll just leave it. It is only 4 jars.

BTW, the recipe called for 1/2 cup lime juice. This was a first for
me because most tomato based recipes I've made so far called for
either white vinegar or cider vinegar. And this recipe was BWB for 20
minutes for 500ml jars. I guess I should give it a try soon, so see
if I like it - I still have quite a few green tomatoes left - could
make another batch.

Kathi

"Kathi" wrote in message
om...

BTW, the recipe called for 1/2 cup lime juice. This was a first for
me because most tomato based recipes I've made so far called for
either white vinegar or cider vinegar. And this recipe was BWB for 20
minutes for 500ml jars. I guess I should give it a try soon, so see
if I like it - I still have quite a few green tomatoes left - could
make another batch.

Kathi, would you please post the recipe? I have some green tomatoes that
need using and I've been looking for a salsa recipe for them.

Thanks,
Anny

"Kathi" wrote in message
om...

BTW, the recipe called for 1/2 cup lime juice. This was a first for
me because most tomato based recipes I've made so far called for
either white vinegar or cider vinegar. And this recipe was BWB for 20
minutes for 500ml jars. I guess I should give it a try soon, so see
if I like it - I still have quite a few green tomatoes left - could
make another batch.

Kathi, would you please post the recipe? I have some green tomatoes that
need using and I've been looking for a salsa recipe for them.

Thanks,
Anny