Jan,

I raw pack my tomatoes with out extra juice. I ususally just crush the tomatoes a bit to give off some juice. I then pressure can the tomatoes.

Stacie

Here are the directions for raw packing half and whole tomatoes without added liquid.

Here is a link that might be useful: canning tomatoes without liquid

The directions for crushed tomatoes say to heat them. Then they get a shorter processing time than the raw pack ones above. Have you thought about canning them as raw pack halves and crushing them when you open the jar? The only thing I can think of is that crushed tomatoes might have a different density than halves. Hopefully someone who knows more will weigh in.

Here is a link that might be useful: crushed tomatoes no added liquid

Stacy & Melly, the problem is she is not only not adding water, she is removing as much of the juice as possible.

This can have a serious effect on how hot the contents become. The crushed pulp, on its own, is rather dense.

Jan: Where did you get the 85 minute processing time?

TRhey should be fine even if the water is strained out some. If you see them floating in the jars and an amber liquid at the bottom, after a few weeks, it will usually indicate that they do exude more water. Unless these were dehydrated and and all water was removed, then they may be unsafe, but because you added the required acid, they should be fine, provided you processed for the proper time. Here, I also dig out seeds and water from the centers and then run them through a Villaware strainer where the pulp gets mashed along with the water it contains. Tomatoes, even though you drain them through sieves will still contain quite a lot of water. Boiling in a canner for 85 minutes is a bit overkill, if they have the extra acid added.

Here's how I can my diced tomatoes.
Peel as usual and cut into small pieces into colander. Collect all the drained off juice and bring to a boil. Add 1 or 1-1/2 cups of the heated juice to each jar along with salt and lemon juice. Fill jars with chopped tomatoes. When you have filled the jar with chopped tomatoes, the juice in the jar is already at the top. You don't have to press the tomatoes as you do with tomatoes packed in own juice. I HWB for 90 minutes because I know it is safe and the USDA says so.

mellyofthesouth, thankyou so much for the info, it's exactly what I was looking for. Every other recipe that I found was refering only to pressure canning.

gardenlad, I got the process time from Ball Blue Book for canning tomato quarters in own juice. The 45 minute boil time is for tomatoes in water. I'm using a boiling water canner, not a pressure canner.

ksrogers, I got about 3/4 jar of tomato and 1/4 water on the bottom. The 85 minutes is recommended, I wasn't sure if it was enough. I'd rather overkill than...kill.

When I cooked the tomatoes first, I got the opposite ratio, 3/4 water and a few toms on top. I guess I made it sound like I was squeezing the heck out of the poor things and trying to can dry tomatoes, lol. I just want more tomato than water for my efforts.

And like you, shirlywny, I'm going to go for a nice even 90 minutes.

Thank you everyone, I love this site.

There is no need to have that long length of time if you add the acid to each jar. Judging by the amount of water left in your jars, they are not too dense, and can be processed under 90 minutes. When I canned whole tomatoes years ago, I had a LOT of water seperate out and it was almost half the quart jar. I never thought they would seperate THAT much but they did, even when I used meaty plum tomatoes. NOw, I remove as much of the seeds and liquid and get a decent sauce before its even cooked.

There most certainly is reason to process for that long, even with added acid. If you don't they are underprocessed and spoilage bacteria can survive. Sorry, Ken, but that is incorrect information.

Shirley, you do yours really well. Thanks for explaining how you do them.
You did them properly, janmac, other than you need to leave the juice in them so they are not so densely packed into the jars, for the heat to penetrate them properly.

I also cook all of mine, and add no uncooked tomatoes to any jars, so that helps in keeping the tomatoes a bit safer, as they are very hot and its hard to hold onto the jars and screw on the rings without getting burned. They immediately get processed.