Canning Without a Rack - Risky?

[raiquee]

Uhm... I process all my things without a rack, as I didn't have one. Seeing as they are on the hottest part of the burner, it will be fine. The only issue you have to worry about is hot spots that could cause breakage.

However, now that I know about the rings...I got a new method! Thanks Free!

 

[LetsBeSelfSufficient]

Thanks everyone and welcome, Emerald! So glad you decided to speak up!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I was about to post a very similar question. I do have an old canning book and I've been reading up. I know the processing times and such have to be gotten from something fairly recent, but I really wanted step by step instructions before I start. And I REALLY gotta start before tomatoes go bad!

I was going to do a water bath canning. My pressure cooker came with the same rack as the pressure canner in the store. Kind of a flat disc to raise them all up a tiny bit.

But my book is showing a rack that you load jars into so they don't touch each other on the side, and I guess it makes it really handy to pull them all out.

I don't have anything like that, and can't find anything.

Is it a must have? I've been trying to decide (don't laugh at me!) if I can make something similar from baling wire. I probably can, and it might be sturdy enough. I can MAKE it sturdy enough. But ... Baling wire? Talk about contaminating the water. I can wash it and boil it (and I'm pulling from a clean roll, not used wire) but it WILL rust.

So ... Please tell me it's not needed? I can just put the jars all on the flat rack and heat them?

I'm considering some hot pack and some cold pack. I dunno if that's something old either, or if I can go ahead. But I need to do something quick. I already cooked down a large crock pot full of tomatoes and just froze them with their juice to cook with later.

Thanks! And hope you don't mine me tagging on a question, since it's so similar. Hope someone sees it.

 

[Emerald]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

to Shiloh Acres-I canned for about 5 years without the rack to pull the pots out and while it is a PITA and the rack is nice it is not totally necessary. The one thing that I do recommend is the jar puller tongs--I would hate to have to process tomatoes without one.
And on the matter of hot packing and cold packing-I myself prefer to hot pack as my cold pack tomatoes always separate into tomato solids and clear liquid. They tasted fine I am just fussy and like them to look pretty on the shelves!
I have also just been using the flat rack from my pressure canner for the water bath right now and it works fine.
I would freeze more of my sauces and stewed tomatoes but my freezer tends to get full of venison and green beans and other veggies that I don't like canned.
Now I have had problems with my tomatoes not all ripening at the same time and I have just tossed them into the freezer after just taking the core out and when I had enuf to can I pulled the frozen ones out and after they thaw just a bit the skins slip right off! I then just processes them like normal--and the cold tomatoes are kinda nice as the kitchen always gets too hot when I can!
And just one more little thing that I haven't seen yet(well on this thread lol)- I do add about 2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice to each quart and one tablespoon to each pint and if you can smaller jelly jars with tomato sauce I usually try to get about a teaspoon and 1/2 in there- really helps with not only flavor but acidity as the "so-called canning authorities" have once again not been able to decide whether or not tomatoes are acidic enuf to be safe to water bath can.. lol

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Thanks Emerald, and

I guess today is my first foray into canning. I always chicken out and make freezer jams or whatever into the freezer. I have a huge commercial freezer, but if I keep it up I'm going to run out of space in there LOL.

Mine ripen some every day too, but right now I'm picking I'd guess around 20 lb per day. I could probably can every other day LOL. Which is ok by me. Tomatoes are my most-used veggie. I put them in almost everything. If I have enough to last till next year I will be happy. I hate to buy them in metal cans, and I also hate to pay $3-4 per pound for styrofoam tomatoes in winter.

I did see the notes about lemon juice, and I always keep it on hand. I'll do that. Thanks! Maybe I should have picked yp the jar tongs then. It was the only thing on the canning shelves that looked useful.

Thanks again so much. I better start on my mountain of tomatoes!

 

[freemotion]

The problem with canning tomatoes and acidity is that modern tomatoes have been selectively bred to reduce the acid, as that is the taste that the public wants nowadays. So they can be too base for safe canning, hence the need to add lemon juice. If you stick with true heirloom canning varieties, you should be fine. Should.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Unfortunately, none of my heirlooms made it to fruit stage.

I might have babied them TOO much? I planted them early in a very bright warm room, carried them into the sun and wind each day and back inside at night, potted them into slowly increasing pots. They developed stiffness in the stems and brownish veining, and died one by one. I had several heirloom varieties. All died.

My hybrids are producing very well -- all except the Sweet 100, which I REALLY want some of. I like to buy sweet grape or similar tomatoes and eat them by the box. Mine taste better but I'm just getting a couple of pea-sized tomatoes a day from five large vines.

Hoping for better luck next year. In the meantime, at least I have LOTS of tomatoes and they are 1000% better than what I can buy at Wal-Mart (if I wanted to spend $100's on tomatoes!). So I can't complain.

 

[Emerald]

Shiloh Acres! sorry to hear about your tomatoes! I have been growing Heirlooms for years now and there are years that it seems that they will never ripen up!(does watching them everyday keep them from turning color ? Or what? lol) The flavor can not be beat.
You might have a potting soil problem or over watering, under watering etc.
many places have started carrying heirlooms even walmart! I hate paying $3 a plants but you could try just one and see if it grows for you. (my recommendation either brandywine or mr. stripy or even green zebra)
But even hybrids homegrown are better than nasty ol' store bought maters any day.
I even went and picked up a 1/2 bushel of tomatoes for canning this weekend as mine are so slow ripening up that I fear the frost will get them before I get any to can! But I usually am a bit "jump the gun" as this morning I just picked a dozen that will ripen up enuf inside to start canning Wednesday when it cools off here-- we are having record heat for the last few days of August! I hate being hot!

 

[Kim's chix]

That jar tong thingy is an absolute must! As for the other stuff, I like the magnet for getting the rings out of the hot water, and the large funnel makes fillng the jars a snap without getting stuff all over the sides. (I'm kind of messy). :/ I tried to do some tomatoes without the jar tongs and got burned, so I went out and bought some. worked great!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Thanks Emerald, I had missed this. I'll try those. The ones I found this year (bought heritage tomatoes I found at local feed stores) were ones I had never heard of, but I should still have the tags.

I think it was a disease. They got very stiff with kinda stripes on the leaves. Sometimes green leaves came out and I kept babying them along, but I never got any flowers or fruit. I'll definitely try again next year. I AM lovng my fresh tomatoes.

And I was gonna buy the jar tongs at wal-mart but they were out of them when I finally made it back to town.