Is water bath method or pressure can necessary for tomatoes?

10 years ago

Hello,
i live in Greece and this year would like to can my own tomato sauce.

The books and foreign websites i have consulted state that for safety reasons, tomato sauce should be preserved by the water bath method or by pressure canning.

However, a few acquaintances of mine and some Greek websites, have recipes that do not use the above methods. What they do is boil the sauce and pour it in oven warmed and supossedly disinfected jars which they then turn upside down. After that the sauce is ready.

What do you think?

Should i take the extra precaution of the water bath or pressure canning methods?

Kind regards
Panos

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Comments (6)

twolips
10 years ago
I have seen those methods too, but have read that it really is not safe and that you can get a false seal. Why take the chance? I wouldn't. I use the water bath method for my tomatoes and also make spaghetti sauce and freeze it, when I don't have enough maters to can.
digdirt2
10 years ago
Hi Panos - The harvest forum here is the canning and preserving forum and I linked it for you below for more info.

The inverting method of jar sealing has not been considered safe to do per the US guidelines for several decades. But we understand that it is still practiced in other parts of the world. That is their choice and their risk to take. Unfortunately they may not have access to all the research done on this issue in this country.

The method you describe is well documented to have a much higher percentage of seal failures, spoiled produce, and bacterial contamination. So proper acidification of tomatoes and proper processing of the jars either with BWB or pressure canning has been recommended in this country since the early 1960's. In 1976 that recommendation was increased to a "requirement for safe canning" of tomato products.

So it is your choice. Keeping in mind that botulism has no odor or taste and no way to detect its presence, only you can determine how much of a risk level you are willing to accept. With proper processing the risk is eliminated.

The current instructions for canning tomatoes - including sauce - can be found at the website of the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP).

BWB processing of tomato sauce requires 35-40 min depending on jar size and the pressure canning time is 15-20 min with the pressure adjusted for altitude.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvest forum
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If adding zucchini or okra yes it must be pressure canned. No BWB option because of the low acidity. Just wondering if you can tell the difference between pressure canned and water bath canned tomatoes? NCHFP says the pressure canning "results in higher quality and more nutritious canned tomato products". Personally I agree and much prefer PCd tomatoes over BWB. I think the color is brighter and the fruit is more firm. But it is a question that has been debated before and I know others will disagree so it boils down to personal preference. Some feel it takes as much if not more time to PC them when you factor in the up-to-pressure and the cool down time but it works faster for us as it fits into wife and my routine with multiple PCs going at the same time. I feel it uses less electricity and gas and I don't have to keep adding water to it as I do with the BWB when it runs for 85 mins. All you can do is try both methods and see which you prefer. Dave
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Sour salt and citric acid are the same thing. There is no question about that. Health food stores carry citric acid. Have you checked them? And as I said in your other long thread, you are clearly shopping in the wrong stores for canning supplies but since we have no idea where you live, we can't direct you to the better stores. You'll have to find them yourself. But if you can't find it or you don't want to spend the money on it and you don't want to order online - as you have made abundently clear - then just use the lemon juice. You have already made up your mind that it will "ruin your tomatoes" even though you have never even tried it. So even though you have no basis for that opinion, you'd likely say the same thing about citric acid if you ever got it. We can tell you till we are blue in the face that it won't but you won't agree and we just keep debating the same things over and over and over. So, since it is clear that you don't wish to add either, don't. As we have all said several times, just skip it if you want. It's your risk to take. You don't seem to be inclined to believe us that it is needed anyway. greenhouser - You are honestly making the whole process of home canning so complicated that it will never be any fun for you and that is sad because that is half the joy of doing it. Dave PS: I honestly cannot imagine how anyone could spend $300 on canning equipment even if they foolishly bought an All American pressure canner unless they have no idea how to comparison shop or are paying artificially inflated prices for things or buying equipment they really don't need. But it's your money.
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I wish i'd get e-mail notices Check your junk email box for them. Your mail program sends them there unless you tell it otherwise. Would this recipe be in any better shape if the tomato paste was added after canning, during preparation? Sure, much better. You'd still need a minimum of 20-25 min. in the PC (based on the Stewed Tomatoes recipe in BBB). Is the ph not so much a concern because of the lemon juice added? In part but also the pressure canning makes a big difference. No way this is safe for BWB caning.. But pH is still a concern because the ratio of tomatoes to onions/peppers is so low. Tomatoes are at least borderline acidic, the onions and peppers are very low acid and there is no way to know if the lemon juice is enough to off-set their pH. Bottom line it is a personal recipe so using it or trying to modify it for safety is all guesswork. As for testing and sources of approved recipes - tons of discussions here about all that. There have always been accepted and tested sources for canning and personal recipes have never been one of those sources. Ball books and NCHFP are the foundation sources that all reputable canning recipes are based on - all tested repeatedly. We have lists of additional books here too. The only thing hand-me-down and personal recipes have going for them is that no one has died from them yet - that we know of. For some folks that is enough. For most of us it isn't nearly enough. :) Think of it this way. The purpose of canning foods is safely preserving the basic foods while in season. It is NOT having ready-to-eat meals. You sauce recipe can easily and quickly be made fresh by canning plain tomatoes and tomato paste and having frozen or dried onions, peppers, and garlic on hand. But trying to mix all those things together and then add oil and then seal it in a vacuum jar, an anaerobic environment, without first insuring the proper density, pH, and processing time is an accident just waiting to happen. But the choice is always yours to make. Dave
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Of course you don't acidify beans or meat. They would be unpalatable. However because they aren't acidified you do have to process them for far longer times than tomatoes. You want to process your tomatoes for 75-90 mins. in a pressure canner like meat? Go for it. The goal is a safe AND an edible end product. what is the reason for additional acidification for tomatos , which is already high acid. Tomatoes are NOT high acid. For purposes of canning they are borderline low-acid. All of the research done since the mid-1970s on tomatoes and their canning requirements is available to all in the NCHFP publications on their website. You only have to go and read it. Additionally in PCing harmful bacteria, even including botulism bacteria/spores are killed. Only if processed for a sufficient length of time and that amount of time varies with each food. You want to eat a jar of chicken or beans that was only pressure canned for 10 min. and hope that all the spores were killed and that there are no cold pockets or insulated spores left in it? Good luck. The rest of us have more sense than to argue with all the research just for the sake of arguing. Dave
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2ajsmama
10 years ago
That's called open kettle canning and is not approved by the USDA. You don't need any special equipment to water bath can - as long as you have the jars and a deep stockpot. You will need to add acid (wine, vinegar, lemon juice, citric acid) and if making sauce rather than just canning tomatoes, best to use a tested recipe so that you don't end up with too many low-acid veggies (peppers, mushrooms, onions), fresh herbs, or oil.

There is a Harvest forum on GW, but best place to start is here:

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation
2ajsmama
10 years ago
Dave beat me to it!
seysonn
10 years ago
For home use and canning, USDA rules is not enforced.
Here is what I am saying: If your jar is disinfected (in boiling water or 300F oven), and you have boiled the sauce; Then you fill the jar, tighten the lid, then place them upside down, ...how the heck bacteria is going to get into it ?
One more thing: When you want to use the sauce you boil it again !!! If you cannot kill a bacterium by boiling, forget about canning and eating tomato sauce.
digdirt2
10 years ago
For home use and canning, USDA rules is not enforced.

If you mean there are no canning police who will come and arrest you then yes, they are not enforced. However liability, not to mention responsibility, does attach to any home canned foods that are shared with others.

fill the jar, tighten the lid, then place them upside down, ...how the heck bacteria is going to get into it ?

It doesn't have to "get in". It is already in there. So is the air still trapped in the jar that allows the bacteria in the jar to continue to grow, reproduce, and produce toxins.

The only foods where inversion sealing is still commonly practiced anywhere is with highly acidic foods - fruit jams and jellies, canned fruits, and brined pickles. Tomatoes do not quality as highly acidic foods since they are borderline pH at 4.5-4.8.

If you cannot kill a bacterium by boiling, forget about canning and eating tomato sauce.

There are many bacteria, including c.botulinum, that cannot be killed by boiling but that doesn't mean the food cannot be canned. Those bacteria are killed only by irradiation (which isn't possible at home) or by high pressure temps in excess of 240 degrees for a period of time determined by the density of the food in question. Alternatively they are packed in an highly acidic medium which prevents the bacteria from reproducing in the jar. Thus the requirement to add additional acid to tomatoes when canning them.

None of this is new info. It dates from research begun back in the 1950's. And it is all discussed in great detail on the Harvest forum for those interested. But I would suggest some research into all the science behind the canning guidelines before sharing such mis-leading information with others. It does them a dis-service otherwise.

Dave

Is water bath method or pressure can necessary for tomatoes?

Comments (6)

twolips

digdirt2

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