What's happened to my tomatoes?

[Smiles Jr.]

DW was gone all day yesterday and, in my ultimate wisdom, I decided to "help out" and do some canning. It's not like I'm new to canning and I have done this with success before. But this time something strange has happened.

These jars were packed semi-tight with peeled and quartered Mortgage Lifters w/no additional water. No salt. No spices. I left a 1/2" head space. 25 min. at 10 psi. The jars in the pics have cooled over night. And as you can see the tomatoes have shrunk. Some jars have about 1" of air space on top and some jars have about 1" of liquid only at the bottom. Everything in the canning procedure seemed to go OK without any problems. I have 14 jars like this.

Is this bad? Have any of you experienced this? Should I store them and eat them? Should I toss them in the compost pile? I don't like the air space at the top of some of the jars as this worries me. What would you do? Thanks.

 

[curly_kate]

I've had some turn out like the ones with the water at the bottom. As long as the jars seal, I don't worry about it. I always cook all my tomato sauce again before using it anyway. Not sure about the ones that look like they are missing liquid....

 

[lesa]

I agree with Curly- if they sealed they should be fine. Did you let the canner cool off, before removing jars? If you are not comfortable with the result- you could dump them all into a pot, cook down and re-can... Good luck!

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

One of my good friends has done some canning this year. Peaches, tomato sauce and pickles. All of her cans looked like your top pictures. Fruit at the top and about an inch or two of liquid at the bottom. She said that she did everything according to the recipe also.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'd guess you used the cold pack method instead of hot pack. If so, that result is not tremendously rare. You might try the hot pack method next time to see if you like the results better.

Just a guess.

 

[brad]

Water bath or pressure canning? We pressure can our tomatoes, and it only takes 10 minutes to process.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Well DW gave me the approval nod yesterday and said that hers turns out that way lots of times. The jars that had the liquid at the bottom and the tomatoes at the top inverted soon after I took those pics. So now all of my jars have solids at the bottom and liquid at the top.

brad - our instructions call for 25 minutes at 10 psi. I think. I'd better go check.

 

[rickdigschicks]

I pickled cukes and cauliflower for the first time yesterday and they came out the same way.
I was pretty surprised thinking I jammed the jars pretty full. I guess I'll try the hot pack
method next time. I still have some jalapenos and half a head of cauliflower left to pickle.

 

[April Manier]

If your seal is good, I think you are fine.

I had the same thing with my peaches. You really have to PACK them in there! However, you should be fine.

I notices my peaches actually "juiced" themselves in the jar after the initial canning. Looks like your tomatoes did too! I figure teh juice will be wonderful when I cook them later.