Tomato canning season is here and so I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people who are canning their own tomatoes for the first time. They worry because their tomatoes are floating, their crushed tomatoes have separated or their jars have lost significant liquid in the canning process and now they’re not sure if their tomatoes are safe. Let’s take these three topics one by one and put your hearts at ease, shall we?
Tomato Float
Take a look at the jars on the left in the picture above. Those are the whole, peeled tomatoes that I canned last year. As you can see, the tomatoes are floating over a good inch of liquid and tomato sediment at the bottom of the jar. This one is absolutely no big deal.
Even the most seasoned canner is going to have some canned whole tomatoes that float. This is because there are air pockets inside those tomatoes and when you pack something with some internal trapped air in a liquid, it will float.
You can try to avoid float by using regular mouth jars (the shoulders of the jar help keep the fruit in place) and packing the jar as firmly as possible (without totally crushing the tomatoes). But really and truly, it’s no big deal.
Tomato Separation
Often, I will hear from people who are concerned because their crushed tomatoes havw separated into a layer of liquid topped by a layer of solids. What happened here is that you heated your tomatoes for more than five minutes, let them cool and then heated them up again.
By doing this, you’ve broken down the pectin inside the tomatoes. In this situation, the pectin was there holding the structure of the cells together and once it goes, there’s nothing to maintain the integrity of the tomato flesh together and so pulp separates from the water.
I never worry about this one either. Just give the jar a good shake before using.
Liquid Loss
Back to the picture up at the top. Take a look at the quart jars on the right. You might notice that several of those jars lost a TON of liquid. I canned that particular batch in my pressure canner and during the cooling process, they siphoned like mad (that’s the official canning term for when liquid escapes).
Siphoning can be prevented by better bubbling of jars and a slower cooling process. However, even when you’re careful, it still happens sometimes. However, as long as your seals are good, jars with even significant liquid loss are still safe to eat.
You may experience some reduction of quality over time and when it happens to lighter colored foods (like peaches), the product that’s not submerged will begin to discolor. Put those jars at the front of the queue of jars to use and don’t worry about it.
What other tomato questions do you guys have? Let’s hear it!
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Thank you sooo much for this wonderful post! I have canned with a friend before, but today canning by myself I experienced siphoning for the first time. I had no idea what had happened and felt like a total failure, so sad! I thought they were ruined, and I’d have to reprocess them. I am still a little worried, it’s my nature to be a worry wart, but I’m following your advice on making sure they’re SEALED, and I think everything will be fine. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for this post. I had separation and slight liquid loss. I wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing or not. This was very reassuring.
I can tomatoes every year(water bath) and have never had any trouble. One jar this year became slightly cloudy. It was not immediate. I keep my canned goods in a pantry and notice this jar about 1 or 2 months after processing. Should I throw them out? Thank you for your attention.
[...] expert: Marisa McClellan who writes Food in Jars. She has great info on her blog and I found this post that explained that I probably did something wrong – like got it hot and cooled a bit -but [...]
I pressure cooked the first batch of tomatoes and I went against directions and pulled the weight off early to release pressure faster after processing time because I had so many tomatoes to run through and I didn’t want to wait. I got the tomato float and loss of liquid, so that’s my fault. The rest I just waterbathed (I added extra acid to ensure safety) and they turned out beautifully like usual. I was pretty sure that first batch would be ok, but now I am very confident, so thanks for addressing it in your post! Sometimes it’s hard to find specific, direct answers about canning. I prefer waterbath to pressure canning just because it takes so long for the pressure canner to get to pressure and to release pressure at the end, it takes longer than waterbath. I wonder why that is? Maybe my sea level? Not sure.
Pressure canners just take a long time to release their pressure. Mine can take up to an hour. This is why I don’t really recommend pressure canning for tomatoes that, as long as they’re acidified properly, can easily be done in a water bath canner.
I just bought my very first pressure canner and I’m so excited to start canning! I’ve googled as much as I can and I’ve read the manual from front to back. I only have a few questions and bare with me if any seem silly!
#1. Do you have to add lemon juice or vinegar to your jars before you wipe down tops of jars, add lids etc???
#2. Do I HAVE to use homegrown tomatoes or can I buy them from the market like Kroger???
#3. What’s the point in a jar lifter when I could use a towel to pull them out of the cooker? Is this because you shouldn’t mess with the lids???
Thank you in advance for your comments!