I think I made a mistake Update 7/1

[Southern Gardener]

when I canned my quart salsa jars for only 25 minutes. I was just reading that you should process quart jars for 35 minutes. My recipe called for pint jars, and boil for 20 minutes, but I didn't have enough so I used quart. I wonder if I should throw them out?

 

[journey11]

How long have they been sitting around? You might be able to put a new lid on and reprocess them. If nothing else, I'd freeze them (if you used widemouth jars, you can leave them in that jar, just loosen or remove the lid until they freeze up, then put your band on or get some of those handy screw on plastic lids (reusable). You could freeze it in plastic bags too.

 

[Southern Gardener]

journey, I processed them on saturday.

 

[digitS']

Call the nutritionists at your local Cooperative Extension office.

Food Safety is a primary reason for the existence of the service.

Steve

 

[Southern Gardener]

Thanks Steve. I'll do that tomorrow.

 

[journey11]

I checked my Ball Blue Book. It had 15 minutes for pints, but no number for quarts. So I googled it. I read that you *shouldn't* can it in quarts, but if you were to give it 10-15 minutes more. Like Steve said, you could call your extension agent and they'd give you canning recommendations by the book--so they'd probably tell you NOT to do it in quarts. I've done it in quarts though and had no trouble so far...I also use a little flour as thickener in some stuff. Call me a rebel! But by the book, a no-no, I guess. What you've processed it at already may be enough. Did you use a made-from-scratch recipe (onions, peppers, the works) or did you use a salsa mix? You probably have less risk with the mix because it will have other stuff added in there to make for correct pH. The peppers and onions done fresh though are, by themselves, a low acid food--which is why they don't recommend the quarts for salsa.

 

[patandchickens]

If you're pretty confident about the acidity of the salsa, personally I'd just eat the jars now or real soonish and call it good

For jars you're not going to get eaten before you start to feel worried about eating them, or if the acidity may be a bit on-the-fence, either reprocess (preferably in pints, so that you do not turn the stuff utterly to mush by extra-long cooking) or freeze it.

Soup, or pot roast, are good ways of using up largish quantities of salsa at a time, if you should decide to go that route.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Southern Gardener]

Thanks everyone. The salsa recipe was from scratch from the Ball book, so I think to be on the safe side I will freeze the whole lot. :/

 

[Southern Gardener]

I've been canning again today and this time I went strickly by the Ball Book. The book says you can process quart jars in a water bath so I did two batches of tomatoes in their own juice. You have to add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to quart jars and 1 for pints. But the kicker is, you have to water bath both for and hour and a half!!! Right now I'm on my second batch and I'm so glad I have a propane burner so I could do it outside! I did 8 pints and 4 quarts. I'll use them this winter to make gumbo, creole and stewed okra. Oh, and I've decided for my birthday next month, I'm treating myself to a pressure canner!

 

[journey11]

Oh, and I've decided for my birthday next month, I'm treating myself to a pressure canner!

Have fun!