Hi! I'm new to canning and need advice. Does anyone know if matters at which point lemon juice is added to a canning jar when canning tomatoes? My recipe for crushed tomatoes called for the lemon juice to be added into the jar before the cooked tomatoes are poured into the jar. I forgot to do so until 1/2 of the jar was filled. At this point I went ahead and added the lemon juice anyway, and then proceeded to pour the rest of the tomatoes. Did I just ruin a bunch of tomatoes?
No, You will be okay. As long as it is in there the acid level will prevent it from exploding ( voice of experience but that's another story) Your recipe reads this way because you will see what jar you did if you get interrupted and the tomatoes will distribute it as you pour. If you did it last you may not have room for it or it would just sit on top. Good job. What's next?
Thanks for putting my mind at ease. (I thought the lemon juice had something to do with preventing bacteria, but did not realize it prevented explosions!) Next for me are endless apples from a 20+ foot apple tree. I was hoping to make a family's favorite apple pie filling and can it for the winter. Is there anything I need to know? Like, does that also need lemon juice? or anything else? The engredients are very simple: apples, just enough sugar to produce a liquid/juice after standing around for 1/2 hour, and raisins. Do you know if the raisins will be a problem?
Some recipes call for the lemon juice to be put in first (at the bottom of the jar) and others will have you put the lemon at the top. Either way is OK.
The purpose of the lemon juice is to increase the pH of the tomatoes because some recent varieties of tomatoes are reputed to be lower in acid than older varieties that were tested in the past. Other factors that can affect the pH of tomatoes is picking them later in the season from vines that have died, or using tomatoes that have been ripened off the vine, etc.
As a safety factor, it is recommended to add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per quart of tomatoes or 1 tablespoon lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon citric acid. Four tablespoons of a 5 percent acidity vinegar per quart can be used instead of lemon juice or citric acid.
The reason for the desire to lower the pH of tomatoes is so that they can be safely canned in a boiling water bath canner. If the pH is higher than a normal 4.6 for the tomatoes, and they begin to move into the neutral or upper pH range of other low-acid vegetables (especially when other vegetables are added in small amounts like onions in salsas, etc), then they need to be processed in a pressure canner in order to be safely canned.
To can the apples, hot pack slices or rings in syrup (half water/half sugar) leaving 1/2-inch head space and process them for 15 minutes (pints) or 20 minutes (quarts) in a boiling water bath. To keep the apples from turning dark, treat them with a dip in ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), citric acid, lemon juice or Fruit Fresh. The raisins probably wouldn't be a problem but might introduce other things to the jar that you can't be too sure about (like tiny stems, etc) so you might want to leave them out and add them later or just try it out with a few jars.
Apples can be mixed with almost any fruit to make jelly without pectin. I often save the peels and boil them down for later use in jellies when I bake apple pies.
--CM
CM thanks for the Tomato explanation I should have explained to naderu why. I make apple jelly and apple sauce. If I am overwhelmed with apples I will peel, core and slice. Put them in a freezer bag. If I use for a pie I will drain most of the liquid off then proceed with the recipe. I might even remove them from the freezer and can them. Usually they don't get that far!
When I make apple pies I like to make a syrup by boiling the peels and cores, and sometimes a lemon rind and a knob of ginger and a cinnamon stick with a little sugar until reduced by half - I strain this and use a small amount of the reduced liquid as the syrup in the pie. It adds quite a lot of flavor!
But other times I just sprinkle the apples with lemon juice, sugar mixed with a pinch of cinnamon and ginger and a little flour. Then I like to save the peels for apple jelly.
--CM
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