Are my canned tomatoes safe to eat?

[Bubbles La Tour]

Edit to add: Oh, I always, after the jars have cooled for 24, remove the rings and wash the exterior with hot, soapy water. You don't want that gunk on the outside of the jars and ruing your rings in storage. Additionally, once the seal is made, the rings are superfluous.

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The rings may be superfluous, but at least you know where they are. I leave the rings loosely on the jars, some don't. And I wholeheartedly agree about cleaning the rings and lid; I don't wash the whole jar unless it needs it. Just my preference.

[Bubbles La Tour]

Thanks everyone.  The SO would have killed me if I made him toss the tomatoes out of irrational fear - now I feel much better!

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Another life saved! Whew!

[Bubbles La Tour]

How do you know if the seal is good after the jars have leaked? Do you just use the same tests you normally would, or is there a more rigorous test you can use under these circumstances? I just had some jars of jam leak while they were being processed, and I'd like to be sure they're safe to leave on the shelf. Thanks!

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Remove the rings/screw bands and wash the sealed jars to remove leaked jam. If you can pick up the jar by the edges of the sealed lid using your fingertips, your seal is good. Shelf storage should be fine and you will look at the contents when you open the jar to enjoy your jam.

What kind of jam did you make? I've made three batches of Boozy Floozy Peach Jam and still have half a lug of peaches looking at me.

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Thanks for the reply. I washed the jars pretty shortly after they had cooled down, and only then realized that I probably should have separated out the ones that had visibly leaked. In any case, none of the lids came off when I tugged on them, so I'll just check for mold when I open them! (And warn anyone I give them to...)

Oh, and it was straight-up damson plum jam that I made. Next week is grape jelly!

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Sounds like you're fine, Matthew. I have wild grape juice in my freezer for jelly. I picked those grapes myself! Today I froze plum juice for ~50 jars of plum jelly from my tree. Tomorrow will be cool; I may go through the plum mush (cooked plums) that are in the refrigerator (from the juicing process) for more plum butter or perhaps plum barbecue sauce. I have pictures of my jelly here: http://www.me.com/barbschaller in the Fair Fare blog. Some of the peaches may wind up at barbecue sauce, too.

[kellytree]

The best way to get around the "is it sealed - will it kill me or not" situation is to "can" tomato sauce in beer bottles. You just have to make sure they are well capped (not a hard thing to do).

[Soupcon]

Last week I experienced "the Italian way" to can tomatoes. Four of us were kindly invited to can tomatoes in the garage of a friend one Friday. Two of us duly bought 8 bushels of roma tomatoes, remembering the instructions to make sure that they were ripe. The tomatoes were delivered and left in the garage for the big day. When I arrived at the home of the friend, slightly late I confess, I found canning in full swing. Anna and her husband had been up since 6am washing the tomatoes and setting up the equipment. (Washing 8 bushels of roma tomatoes... my goodness) There were two large metal burners fueled by propane on which the canners - two large oil drums - would sit. Two tressle tables with table cloth were lined up at the back of the garage on which I could see many prepared clean quart canning jars with a few pieces of fresh basil in them. The metal lids and rings were in a bowl on the table. At one end of the table was a large wooden trough with small drainage hole at one end under which I could see a bucket. Beside this trough was THE MACHINE. This machine is like a meat grinder except there is a screen over the length of the screw through which the tomatoe juice and pulp are forced and the skin and seeds are forced through the end into another disposal bucket. The skin and seeds are very dry and contain very little liquid after going through THE MACHINE. The pulp and liquid are forced out the screen and down a guide into another large bucket. One of the burners has a large aluminium stock pot simmering into which 1/2 bushels of tomatoes are dumped to make it easier for the skins to be removed and then the blanched tomatoes are fished out and dumped into the wooden trough to await their turn in THE MACHINE. One of us is working THE MACHINE, using a pusher to force the hot tomatoes through and others and pricking the hot tomatoes with a fork (hot tomatoe juice in the eye or on the face is not pleasant) so the person manning THE MACHINE is less likely to get burnt. Others empty the pail with the tomato juice and pulp into yet another large tub where the salt is added - four circles in the air with the salt box running salt is the correct amount I am told. And still others ladle the tomatoe pulp into the waiting jars. When enough jars are full with appropriate head space and with the lids and rings in place the oil drums are loaded - approx 100 jars per oil drum - with layers of old cotton sheeting, old towels etc are crammed between the jars and between the layers to stop them from moving and possibly breaking while cooking. Then when the drum is full, we all teamed together to lift the drum onto it's burner making sure it was centered and stable, the gas was lit and we were cooking. It takes about 1 hour for each full drum to boil, then they boil for 1 hour and then a few hours to cool down enough to bail out the water and lift the hot jars out. We canned 150 quarts/litres of tomatoes all together that day. This family normally carries out this canning ritual for each of its members and regularly cans 12 bushels or more a day for a number of days in August/Sept of each year and has done so for the past 30 or so years.

[Bubbles La Tour]

(snip for brevity)

Beside this trough was THE MACHINE. This machine is like a meat grinder except there is a screen over the length of the screw through which the tomatoe juice and pulp are forced and the skin and seeds are forced through the end into another disposal bucket. The skin and seeds are very dry and contain very little liquid after going through THE MACHINE.

Look up Squeezo Strainer.

Squeezo rules for this task.

(snip for brevity)

running salt is the correct amount I am told. And still others ladle the tomatoe pulp into the waiting jars. When enough jars are full with appropriate head space and with the lids and rings in place the oil drums are loaded - approx 100 jars per oil drum

Yowsers! That's a lot.

- with layers of old cotton sheeting, old towels etc. are crammed between the jars and between the layers to stop them from moving and possibly breaking while cooking. Then when the drum is full, we all teamed together to lift the drum onto it's burner making sure it was centered and stable, the gas was lit and we were cooking. It takes about 1 hour for each full drum to boil, then they boil for 1 hour

Quarts of sauce as you describe it only need 40 minutes in the boiling water bath (after the boil).

Sounds like a great party!

I am a conservative food preserver and would add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice of 1/2 tsp of citric acid to each jar before filling with the sauce. That's the recommendation of the National Center for Home Food Preservation, the researchers who work up the USDA safe food preserving guidelines. <http://www.uga.edu/nchfp>

-Bubbles