Cherry green tomato pickles more like stewed tomatoes !

15 years ago

hi,I'm kinda new to canning.I was going to make cherry green tomato pickles.I followed everthing very close but the pickles turned out more like stewed tomatoes. I put them in the water bath when water was hot,it took 45 min to bring to boil then 10 min so they were in 55 min.Should I wait till the water is boiling before I put them in.How do I get them crisp & crunchy like a real pickle.I have more but don't want to wast them.Help please.Rick

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Comments (3)

remy_gw
15 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Hi Rick,
If you had to wait for 45 minutes for the water to come to a boil, the water was not hot enough. The water should be simmering when the jars go in and the jars should be fairly hot having the hot vinegar mix poured over the tomatoes so it shouldn't taken so long. Now how much that effected how they came out, I don't know. Can you post the recipe directions that you followed?
Remy
katykelly_gw
15 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I always have HWB going at a hard simmer if not an out right boil as I jar up. Of course everything (jars/vinegar solution)is hoT, hOT, HOT!
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I think you can. If there was not a lot of salt to begin with, however, they may not properly cure now. I made a batch of half sour cukes earlier this year and was a bit skimpy on the salt in the brine and allowed it to continue for the 3 days and then into the fridge. They were tasted a week later and were very soft, watery, and rubbery, not like I expected. Tossed them all out! It was probably due to not only an insufficient salt in the brine, but also the cukes were store bought, and a bit larger than a common pickling cuke. Needless to say, to get the best crispness the cukes need to be really fresh, and picked the same day as pickled. When I make mine, I added about 10 good sized branches of fresh dill weed to each jar, as well as 4-5 cut cloves of garlic, and a single whole peppercorn. The mixes usually have sufficient dill flavor, but I like to fortify them a bit more, with fresh herbs. The mix I used also had some whole dill seeds in it too. I could tell they were fermenting as I opened the jar covers (two days later) and could see tiny streams of bubbles coming to the surface. At that time, I had to pour off about a 1/4 cup of the brine to fit the white vinegar in. They are all in the fridge now. If you like a really strong dill flavor, place some of the dill seeds in a small coffee grinder (blender type) and chop them up a bit, along with some whole ones. The brine I made from a larger packet of Mrs. Wages dill pickle mix was a bright yellow due to the tumeric they add, and was just on the edge of being too salty and salty enough to 'water your mouth' point. Ideally thats where you want to be at before teh curing starts. I did post an actual amount of salt used with a specific amount of water, and got that info from a recent Good Eats show hosted by Alton Brown. I think it was something like 5 1/2 ounces of pickling salt, or a mix (like Ball or Mrs. Wages) to to a gallon of water. I posted the info on another recent thread. The search engine here is terrible and I couldn't even find the 'Tamarind' word when I did a search after a posting about that flavor in another thread.
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daria
15 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Have you posted at the harvest forum? They can give you some great canning tips. They (and I) always recommend the Ball Blue Book of canning - if you don't have a copy, you should pick one up, it's a great resource.

These are the steps I always follow, I find that it's a good formula and always works for me. Hopefully it's not too much information - I'm probably being too thorough, but better safe than sorry.

1. Wash jars. Wash rings, rinse new lids. Put lids in a small saucepan with water on "low" so they get warm and the rubber becomes soft for canning. I set up a workstation - basically a kitchen towel spread on the counter next to my stove to set jars on while I fill them, and keep the rings at a corner of the towel, within reach. The rings don't have to be hot. I also dampen a paper towel for wiping the jar rims clean before putting lids on, and keep that handy on one side of the towel.

2. Put jars in a big canning pot**, filled so that the jars are covered with 2 inches of water. The jars will be full of water, which will sterilize them as they heat. Put the lid on the canner (if you have a pressure canner, just set it on, don't tighten).

3. Bring water in canner to a high simmer, while preparing food for canning. I usually crank the heat to high and turn it back when I hear it starting to boil.

4. When food is ready to be canned, the water in the canner should be plenty hot, so it will come back to a boil quickly. If it's not, keep your food at the ready. (You want those jars to be sterile if you're heating them in the water.)

5. Pull a jar out of the canner using a jar lifter, and carefully pour the hot water from it into the sink. I have my own angle technique that works - just be careful when you do this, because you pretty much have to pour the water toward you to keep the jar in hand with the lifter. Practicing with cold water isn't a bad plan if you haven't done the pour before. :) Or if you're more sensible than I am, you might set the jar down for a moment on your towel, then pick it up again from the side with the lifter and empty it that way.

6. Fill the jar with food to be canned, wipe the rim, put a lid on, then put a ring on. Tighten the ring to finger tight - it should be snug but not super tight. (All the ring does is apply a little pressure so that there is good contact between the lid's sealant and the jar rim - it doesn't hold the lid on; the natural vacuum will do that.)

7. Put filled jar back into canner, and pull the next empty jar. Repeat steps 5-6 until all jars are full. I do these steps as quickly (but carefully) as possible so that the first jar sitting in the hot water doesn't end up with soft pickles.

8. Put lid on canner when all jars are filled. Bring back up to a boil (should only take a few minutes, since the water has been simmering the whole time). Start timing when the boil starts, and pull the jars when the timer goes off. If pressure canning, you would wait 5 minutes (possibly more) after the timer goes off to pull out the jars.

**If you're lucky enough to have a dishwasher, you can put the jars in there on sani-cycle and it will keep them hot as long as it's closed. Still, you'll have to be sure to get the canner simmering with enough water to cover the filled jars by 2 inches, and starting the heating while you're prepping food is good timing. With a dishwasher you won't have to deal with pouring hot water down the sink. That's how my mom always canned. I wish my husband would hitch up our dishwasher. Someday...

Cherry green tomato pickles more like stewed tomatoes !

Comments (3)

remy_gw

katykelly_gw

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daria

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