Hope you don't mind if I just C&P an answer from one of the previous discussions here on siphoning and its causes. NCHFP has a good table on the causes of siphoning/loss of liquid that may help (Carol linked that). One of the main causes is skipping the 10 min wait between removing the weight and removing the lid. Did you do that? You also want to wait several more min after removing the lid before removing the jars. Adjusting the heat source too much is also a common cause. Better to let it run a little high than to adjust too much trying to keep it pegged. Also check out the NCHFP How-To Use a Pressure Canner guide for step-by step instructions. Canner manuals are usually outdated on this info. Dave PS: NCHFP is also a better source of recipes as all there are tested and approved. Some the recipes at the source you used are not.

Carol, I was just writing in to say Just THAT!! You took the words out of my mouth. I can not for the life of me, understand those guidelines!! I like to think I'm fairly intelligent, but as much as I love the info on the NCFHP, I just couldn't figure out the processing times. Thank you Carol and Dave! You clarified what I just couldn't understand. So I was able to can 8 pints of crushed tomatoes, after your advice. And I hit and kept the 15 lb of pressure for 15 minutes easily with hardly any temp adjustments. The whole process took much longer because I took my time double checking everything and it all went smoothly from processing to lifting them out, after waiting 75 minutes (just to be sure)for the canner to cool down. I have another batch to can tomorrow and I can't wait. I don't have another rack so I can layer them together like I'd like to. Thank you for the advice, you don't know how much I appreciate it! And I will add an index card or small notebook in my Pressure canner box, so next year I can read what I did. Thank you for the idea, Carol! ~ Amanda

" Until then, I pressure can tomatoes without added acid for 75 minutes and I don't worry about it." That is certainly your choice to do however the quality is great;y affected by processing them 2x longer than is required. No one said you must use citric acid. It is merely one option. If possible exposure to 1/2 tsp of GMO corn, which is in all sorts of products in much larger amounts, bothers you that much just use bottled lemon juice or lime juice or vinegar. "Citric acid is derived from GMO corn which means it's full of glyphosate (Roundup) and other pesticides, PLUS you have the unknown side effects of the fact that it's GMO." Let's try to be somewhat accurate here. First, all citric acid is not made from GMO corn. Much of it made from citrus. Not all GMO corn is "full of glyphosate or other pesticides", while most all corn is now somewhat modified as result of centuries of cross-pollination only some of that crossing has been from GMO fields. Not all commercial corn growers spray glyphosate or any other herbicide and/or pesticides and even if they did while the the corn itself has been exposed to those chemical the corn is not "full" of the herbicides or pesticides and there is ample scientific testing to prove that. lastly, as you said, the effects of GMO ingestion are unknown, just that, good or bad - unknown. Don't get me wrong, i am not a fan of nor do I support GMO activities. But I also refuse to buy into all the uninformed hysteria about it. Especially not to the point that I'd get all bent out of shape over 1/2 tsp of a product that might contain an infinitesimal amount of something I don't like. Do that and we might as well give up breathing and eating because we breathe and eat lots of things daily that aren't the best things for us whether we realize it or not. "It makes no sense that we can can meat, green beans and carrots, which are not acidic at all, without added acid, but we can't can tomatoes? Nonsense. Just because the USDA hasn't tested it doesn't mean it's not safe. Show me studies PROVING that is it UNSAFE and i will listen. Until then, I pressure can tomatoes without added acid for 75 minutes and I don't worry about it." You are comparing apples to oranges. Substantially different processing times are required. As for the studies, if you are honestly interested then they are readily available on the NCHFP website under Publications and also available on the USDA website usda.gov/foodandnutrition/research and science. Dave

Okay, I finally did it. My husband brought home some more catfish yesterday. Per the instructions, the fish were gutted and bled within 2 hours of being caught (actually was done immediately). They were stored on ice until he got them home. He filleted them and handed them over to me. I washed them again and drained them. I pressure canned them per NCHFP instructions for pint jars. The fish are canned raw pack into hot jars. I filled the jars with fish cut into approximately 3-1/2" strips. I left 1" of head space. No liquid was added. I added approximately 1/8 tsp of salt per jar, much less than the listed amount, which is optional anyway. The processing time was 100 minutes. I processed only 4 pints because I didn't know if I would like the catfish pressure canned. After processing was complete and jars removed, I had one jar with a seal failure, which I know was related to the lid itself. It was the only one left from an old batch I uncovered in the pantry and it just didn't take. I refrigerated that jar as soon as I discovered it this morning, approximately 9 hours after being removed from the canner. I cooked it up in a recipe for lunch today. I used a recipe for fish patties that was labeled "if you like crab cakes, you'll love this recipe." It was only for "inspiration" and what I did was mix the entire jar of fish (drained of the liquid) with about a cup (maybe a little more) of cracker crumbs, a squirt of mustard, mayo, some lime juice, about 1/3cup each of minced bell pepper and onion, 1 clove of garlic, 1 egg, cajun seasoning, and some freshly picked and chopped cilantro. I formed patties and cooked over medium heat in about 1-2 TBS of oil in a large skillet. When they were golden brown on each side and thoroughly cooked, I removed from the skillet. They are actually quite good. I would repeat this recipe. Now, for the negatives: I was forewarned by several official extension agency publications that the texture of the fish might not be satisfactory after canning this type of fish. The catfish did not come out flaky. In the jar, it looks like it remains in the cut slabs, but it is extremely mushy, and becomes almost paste-like as soon as you start stirring it up. This texture did not affect the recipe I used at all, but I can't see it working for most other recipes. I thought it might be usable for casseroles (like a tuna-like casserole), but I don't think I would like it. I will try it for a tuna-like salad sandwich spread, but I don't know how that will turn out yet. I'm not sure what other recipes this might work for. I thought if all the recipes were failures at the taste-test, I would use it for cat food. However, my vet has recommended that I not feed fish-flavored cat food to my cat due to a bladder ailment. He says fish cat food is processed with the fish bones, which provides too many minerals which form crystals in his bladder (similar to kidney stones in people). I will ask if that is still a problem if the fish is processed without bones, but for now, I'll avoid canning it for cat food. All in all, I think it will work just fine for fish patties and I would probably do it again. It is very, very, very easy. It was easier than bagging up in individual bags for the freezer. The only thing time-consuming about it was monitoring the canner processing time. The only other thing that occurred is that the jars are not full. I did not have any siphoning. I probably did not put enough fish in the jars. I just dropped pieces of fish in until it came up to the 1" head space. I didn't try to push them down or fit any more in. When processing was over, the self-made liquid covers the fish, but the jars are a little less than 2/3 full. Jill in Texas