8. The Surprising Truth About Canning Tomatoes

Who knew canning tomatoes was such a controversial subject? When you stumble across canning discussions on Facebook or in other homestead groups, this seems to be one of the most hotly contested topics. Why you might ask? Primarily because many canning organizations challenge certain traditions in terms of how foods should be canned. Fear not my friends. In today’s episode, I share a simple solution that will allow you to utilize any canning method you desire.  I also dig deep into the different factors that can affect the acidity, which ultimately effects the canning method you should use.  If you’ve ever wondered how you can stay true to whatever canning method you desire, then this is the podcast for you!

Some key highlights from today's episode: 
    •  How decay and over-ripening affect the acidity     
    •  When to use water-bath canning vs. pressure canning 
    •  Why lemon juice, vinegar, or citric acid can be your best friend 

Kick your fears to the curb and learn everything you’ll ever need to know about canning at https://www.learnhowtocan.com now! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the old fashioned on purpose podcast.
In today's episode, we arediving into all of the myths and
debate that surround home cannedtomatoes.
Believe it or not, because yes,there is more to it than you may
think.
And if you keep listening, I'llshare the one thing you can

(00:22):
easily add to your home cannedtomatoes, you probably already
have it in your pantry so younever have to worry if they are
safe to eat.
I'm your host Jill winger andfor the last 10 years I've been
helping people who feel a littleuninspired by modern life, learn
how to leave the rat race andcreate the life they really want

(00:46):
by growing their own food andmastering old fashioned skills.
All right, so there is a bit of,shall we say, conversation
around home canned tomatoes.
And I seem to have this knackfor accidentally stumbling
across controversy in the mostneutral feeling topics, but it's

(01:13):
crazy.
When you talk about canningtomatoes online or in homestead
groups on Facebook, things getkind of heated sometimes.
And this whole debate stems fromthe fact that pretty much all of
the older tomato canning recipescall for simple water bath

(01:34):
canning.
So if you've been canning for along time or you have a grandma
or a mom who is or was a canner,tomatoes were always going in
the water bath.
No question.
It was just very simple and thiswas the way it was done for
decades because tomatoes are afruit and we all know that fruit

(01:58):
is very well suited to waterbath canning due to its acidity.
So it was really a nonissue.
Now things get a little moretricky recently because we have
these canning authorities andthese are organizations like the
USDA or the national center forhome food preservation and

(02:22):
they're always testing andchecking recipes and
recommendations.
They're kind of always workingon stuff behind the scenes.
But anyway, they have been orhad been looking at tomatoes,
you know, testing tomatoes,canning tomatoes, and they
started to recommend thattomatoes be pressure canned

(02:42):
instead of water bath canned.
I remember the first time that Isaw this recommendation, I'm
like, that is ridiculous.
Like, come on, I've water bathcanned tomatoes, we all know
it's acidic.
This is ridiculous.
But they actually do have areally good point.
It is worth paying attention toeven if it's not the way that

(03:02):
your grandma did it.
Right?
So here's why it's kind ofinteresting and definitely worth
taking note of.
This change in recommendationsis related to some updated
research that has been done ontomatoes.
And what they found is thattomatoes are not always acidic

(03:24):
as we might think.
So to give you just a littlebackground, if you're new to
this idea of canning or low acidor high acid foods, any food
with a Ph of 4.6 or less can besafely water bath canned.

(03:44):
So anything less than 4.6,that's considered acidic and
foods that fall into that realmwould be most fruits.
Like whether it's strawberriesor peaches or apples, they all
contain a lot of acid.
So those can be water bathcanned as can foods that have
been acidified such in the caseof pickles, right?

(04:09):
Cucumbers are not acidic, but weadd a whole bunch of vinegar to
pickles and that makes themacidic.
So we can water bath can picklesall day long with no issue.
Now any food with a P h higherthan 4.6 is considered low acid.
So that's things like prettymuch all vegetables, meats,

(04:34):
broths, soups and so on.
So because foods like that don'thave the acid, they need to be
pressure canned at those highertemperatures in order to ensure
they are safe to be stored onthe shelf.
All that being said, for yearswe all assumed or thought or you

(04:57):
know, the extent of the researchat that point in time showed
that tomatoes were acidic.
So we all water bath canned themwithout a second thought.
And then they backtracked alittle because they started to
realize that not all tomatoesare quite as acidic as

(05:18):
originally assumed.
And actually some are right onthe edge of that 4.6 range.
So it just can be really iffy.
And there are actually a lot ofconditions that can come into
play with tomatoes that canchange their acidity.
What happens to your tomato whenit's in your garden or while

(05:43):
it's being grown on the farm canaffect these levels.
So things like decay oroverripening.
Now raise your hand if you'veever canned a smushy tomato,
like I do it all the time,right?
I don't want to eat them on thesandwich, but they're perfectly
fine.
They're not moldy.
So I throw them into the sauce.

(06:03):
There's nothing wrong with that.
But those overripe tomatoes areprobably lower in acid.
Even things like growing atomato in the shade or ripening
them off the vine can reduce theacidity.
And again, I ripen almost all ofmy tomatoes off the vine because
we have such a short growingseason.

(06:26):
Beyond just the growingconditions, we also can see
different levels of acid indifferent varieties of tomatoes.
There are a few myths kind offloating around that it's only
the newer varieties or thehybrid tomatoes that are low in
acid, but that's actually not100% true because they've tested

(06:49):
and discovered that there areheirloom varieties of tomatoes
that are lower in acid as well.
Basically in a nutshell, there'sa whole heck of a lot of
variables to consider with atomato.
And I highly doubt that you or Iare going to spend the time in
doing this detective work tofigure out how much acid does

(07:11):
this tomato have or how is itgrown.
And like sometimes we just don'teven have the capability of
figuring those things out if thetomato came from a farm, you
know, several states away.
So it's definitely something tokeep in mind.
We do need to acknowledge thefact that the acidity level in

(07:32):
tomatoes is maybe not what wethought and then take actions
accordingly.
There's a lot of recommendationsthat are out there that you just
pressure can your tomatoes andthere's nothing wrong with doing
that.
You absolutely can if you have apressure canner.
But I know it does bother somefolks because not everyone has

(07:55):
invested in a pressure canneryet and you have a water bath
canner and it's a little bit ofa downer to have to stop canning
your tomatoes the way you'vedone it forever.
So thankfully there is a magicweapons.
You don't have to go out and geta pressure canner just to do
your tomatoes.
And the magic weapon is lemonjuice.

(08:19):
As long as anytime you can atomato at home, whether it's
crushed, whole diced or in asauce, you add some sort of
additional acid, you're fine.
Like you can totally continue towater bath your tomatoes.
Okay.
So lemon juice is definitely myfavorite option when it comes to

(08:41):
acid, but there's also a coupleothers.
So you can also use citric acid,which is a white powder that
comes from citrus.
It's natural, or you could usevinegar.
Honestly vinegar is not the onethat I really recommend very
often.
It's fine in other canningrecipes.

(09:01):
With tomatoes, it's going tochange the flavor quite a bit.
So it's not my favorite.
I do lemon juice as my firstchoice.
Citric acid as my second choice.
Citric acid should not add anyweird flavor to your sauce.
It's just a little bit morechallenging to find than lemon
juice.

(09:22):
Okay.
Here are a few numbers for youso you know how much of these
acids to add.
So you might want to grab a penand paper if you want to write
this down.
When you're canning tomatoes andadding lemon juice, add one
tablespoon per pint jar and twotablespoons per quart jar.

(09:46):
When you're adding citric acidto your home canned tomatoes,
you're going to add a quarterteaspoon per pint jar and a half
teaspoon per quart jar.
So you're seeing a pattern herethat it's that quart is equal to
two pints.
So we're just doubling thatamount and with the vinegar, and

(10:06):
it's really important if you'regoing to use vinegar in any
canning, you always use a storebought vinegar that's at least
5% acidity.
If you're using homemadevinegars, it's really hard to
nail that acidity level down.
So make sure it's store boughtin this case and with vinegar,
it's going to be a little bitmore at two tablespoons per pint

(10:28):
and four tablespoons per quartjar.
So what I do is I just line myjars out.
I add the acid with my measuringspoon into each jar and then
fill it with the tomatoes,whatever kind they may be.
It's very simple and as long asyou're doing this, you don't
have to pressure can yourtomatoes, this additional acid

(10:50):
will ensure that they'reacidified enough.
It will fill in any gaps thatmay be there due to tomato
variety or how the tomatoes weregrown and you should be set.
Just as we wrap this up, alittle bit of a reminder because
you might be hearing this andsaying this is a waste of time.

(11:13):
I'm just going to skip the acidand I'm not going to worry about
it.
Grandma did this forever.
I don't know why this is such abig deal, but I do highly
recommend that you follow therecommendations put out by these
canning authorities and thereason that they shift on,
sometimes that frustrates usbecause they come out with rules
and processes that we don'talways understand at first

(11:35):
glance.
They're doing that to ensurethat we're not dealing with
botulism in our home cannedfoods.
And in a previous episode wetalked pretty extensively about
botulism and why it's a bigdeal.
So I'm not going to go intoevery single detail here, but in
a nutshell, botulism is anextremely dangerous form of food

(11:59):
poisoning and it used to be farmore prevalent when people were
canning more often with theseunsafe canning methods.
It can still happen today if youare using unsafe canning methods
that has not been eradicated.
However, we see far fewer casesof botulism because people for

(12:23):
the most part are followingthese recommended procedures and
guidelines.
And as scary as botulism is, thegood news is it doesn't have to
be an issue because it's very,very easy to prevent.
It's not just this mysteriousthing that comes out of nowhere.
It's very calculated and simpleto understand how to keep it out

(12:45):
of your jars.
Botulism doesn't like acid andthat's why acid is such a big
deal.
So as long as you're acidifyingfoods in the water bath canner
or if you really want topressure, or excuse me, if you
really want to preserve loweracid foods and you don't want to
add acid, just use a pressurecanner.

(13:06):
So it's very simple.
You either have to stave off thebotulism with acid or high high
heat.
Those are the two things itdoesn't like.
And as long as you'reincorporating those into your
canning and following thoserecommendations, it's very, very
safe.
There's nothing to worry about.
But again, I recommend andencourage you to pay attention

(13:29):
to the guidelines and understandwhy we do what we do.
So you never ever have to worryabout whether or not your home
canned foods are safe.
In a nutshell, I think tomatoesare an incredible staple for
every homestead pantry.
They are simple and very, verysatisfying to can.

(13:51):
I mean, they can go in everysort of dish under the sun.
There's so many options.
So it's totally worth your timeto understand how and why to can
them properly.
And as long as you got yourlemon juice, you will be just
fine.
If canning is something that youhave been wanting to learn but

(14:12):
you're not quite sure how tostart and it feels a little
overwhelming, I've got youcovered.
I created a full ebook, completewith details, diagrams, and step
by step walk throughs so you canstart canning safely without the
headache.
Go to www.learnhowtocan.com forall the details and some fun

(14:39):
bonus goodies as well.
And that is it for this episode.
Thank you so much for listeningand I would be so honored if you
would pop over to iTunes, leavea quick review and hit
subscribe.
That's all for now and I'll seeyou in the next episode of the
old fashioned on purposepodcast.