Today Elizabeth Andress answered my question a bit more indepth about the acid blend and in particular about malic acid. She said that someone had emailed her about it. She said she didn't know if that person was in the audience or not, so I did push the button on the box to tell her that I was. I really appreciated her addressing this question. She said that when acids are added there is a buffering that takes place. She said different amounts of the other acids would be needed due to the natural resistance of the foods being canned. So, there is no way to safely determine at home how much of the other acids would be needed in place of plain citric acid. She said that the acid will also change the water activity in canned foods. This is what I learned or at least made it more clear and seems more indepth, espcecially why some things need more acid when pickling than other foods. As acid is added to a food the pH decreases (becomes more acid). The speed and amount of pH change depends upon the acid added and the buffering capacity of the food. Most food acids such as citric acid or acetic acid are relatively weak acids. The buffering capacity of a food is its ability to resist changes in pH. Therefore, the amount of acid that must be added to a food to lower the pH is dependent upon the buffering capacity of the food. Foods high in protein such as meats have greater buffering capacity than vegetables. Meat will thus require greater amounts of acid to lower the pH to the same degree. Maturity and varietal differences affect the buffering capacity of vegetables. So, I did some good information from her. She seems to be such a kind, down to earth lady. I was so pleased to have been able to see her on the video conference today. I have some more information to share on other subjects from today.

As Elizabeth said, the ones in the PC and BWB are equivilent processing times. Folks don't normally want to PC tomatoes for a longer time. It is based on the "general" public. It is easier and faster to just add the acid. It would take a long time for the heat to penetrate the tomatoes in the pressure canner that most people would not want to do that. All the commercial tomatoes have citric acid added.Fruit fresh is only for color preservation, not for adding acidity. Do not use it instead. It must be citric acid or bottled lemon juice. The Minnesota guidelines are not safe to rely upon for tomatoes. One thing, most of us are not in Minnesota. Secondly, this is their own independent study. This is not the USDA standard testing.( The National Center For Home Food Preservation are the ones to rely upon. They are the leading authority when it comes to canning. Elizabeth Andress wrote the USDA guidelines.) Our soil will be different than theirs. If you grow the same tomatoes in your garden and I grow them in mine they ph level can be totally different. The canning times for the other veggies are based not only on ph, but density. It depends upon how the cells of the veggies absorb the heat in the pressure canner. Denser things take longer to process. For example, green beans in water will heat faster than a jar full of just packed tomatoes. Same reason the zucchini and tomato mixture is processed with no acid added. The juice from the tomatoes, the way they are diced, etc. all make a difference in heat penetration . Same reason tomato juice doesn't take as long to process as whole tomatoes. The juice is thinner and less dense. So, that is most of the reason behind tomatoes taking so long. We find that the crushed tomatoes result in the best texture, faster times, etc. There is a comparable time, but that is for tomatoes packed in water. Who wants to fill their jars full of water with tomatoes ??? If you raw pack them, then it does take 85 min. in the BWB canner. So, when we teach canning lessons we have them do the crushed tomato version from the NCFHFP. You crush and heat some of the tomatoes first, then keep adding the rest of the tomatoes to the pan and heat them all. The PC is supposed to have a higher nutrition value than the BWB canned tomatoes. If you think them too tart, some folks add a pinch of sugar. I don't even notice the tartness of the added acid to tomatoes. I hope I answered everything. If not, then ask me again. Things are CRAZY around here now ! Oh, and the thing about boiling them first before you eat them. Well, if botulism is there, think about you opening that jar, touching the lid with botulism on it. Then, maybe dripping it on the counter. Just not really that wise to use boiling as insurance in my personal opinion. Either you processed them correctly and they are safe or they are not safe. So, I suggest do it correctly and no risk involved.

I think hummingbirds would be sensitive to the sour taste and avoid it. I also think that if there was a preservative effect, there would still be times you ran up against the expiration date and got spots of mold.

Pinkmountain, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't due to the lack of pectin. I made apricot jam and Christine Ferbers' mint pepper strawberry preserves both without pectin and they still have a jam feel. The strawberry recipe had 4 parts sugar to 5 parts fruit by weight and I used a bit less sugar to fruit in the apricot jam. Both had a kind of soft set, but they had a set. The jam for cold mornings and the brown sugar rum are also around that ratio - somewhere between 5 and 6 parts fruit to 4 parts sugars. The maple peach that I made isn't runny and it will stay on the bread but the texture is in a different class. It is solid enough to stay where I put it but it doesn't have any "set". My husband tried it without being told what it was and referred to it as peach butter. It has one part sugar in the form of maple syrup to about 10 cups peaches. It is good and I'm not sorry that I made it but I would tend to call it something other than peach jam. I'd call it peach sauce like apple sauce except that people might think that meant it was a syrup. Maybe peach butter - I'm not sure what makes a fruit butter.