Jar not filled

unclejoe

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I made tomato soup the other day and the last pint jar is only about 2/3 full. It seems to be sealed but I thought I would ask the experts around here for their opinions. Is this acceptable?
 

me&thegals

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well, Ahem! Since I just taught my first canning class, I now consider myself an absolute know-it-all expert on all things canning. :hide Actually, I found out by reading a canning book how much I screw around with the process and how little I follow directions. I guess I would eat the soup up or even refrigerate it. Airspace is pretty important regarding a bacteria's ability to grow or not. Mmmm... Tomato soup :drool
 

miss_thenorth

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So, how quickly would one need to use them? I ak, b/c my canned tomatoes, (not my sauce, but the halved tomatoes)-- all of them have different headspaces. They are all sealed, but I know alot of liquid leaked out while canning them.

I canned them last week.
 

patandchickens

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If you are having a bunch of partial boilovers, either the headspace was wrong or you are taking the jars out of the canner too quickly (let them sit there, canner lid off, for a few minutes or more after the time is up, if this is a problem)

Have you checked to see whether they are really genuinely truly sealed -- not just whether the lid curves down, but when you take the ring off, pick the jar up using just your fingernails under the edges of the lid. (Carefully, over a cleanable surface, obviously ;)) If the lid comes off when you do that, it wasn't really firmly reliably sealed in the first place.

If jars which have lost some of their liquid are really genuinely sealed as per the above test, I have not personally had problems with them going bad (though of course there may be some small elevated risk that would only be noticeable with a larger amount of canning, I dunno). If solid food, e.g. pieces of fruit, stick out above the liquid, they can discolor and soften slightly but I've never had any like that that seemed "bad" to me, just not something you'd enter in the fall fair :p I do eat any that have lost liquid first, although I do not race to do so. I eat the ones with the most liquid lost first. Really though, it only happens due to inattention while canning so it *can* be avoided with better craftsmanship :p

Good luck, have fun,

Pat
 

me&thegals

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What she said. For whatever reason, this happened with my beans, which now have about 1-2" of headspace. After all that work, there is no way I am dumping them. I will boil them for about 10 min, though, before serving for suppers.

I do find it helps a lot to leave my jars in whatever canning pot they are in (whether pressure, steam or water) until they are really cooled down. When I take lids off sooner or pull the jars out too soon, a lot of contents boil up and out.
 

miss_thenorth

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(Sorry UncleJoe to hijack your thread)

When I got the tomatoes (approx 2-3 bushels) I put a bunch in for sauce asap. While I was waiting for that to boil down, I decided to do the 1/2 tomatoes. (Mind you this was my first time in about 10 years canning, & I wasn't a pro back then.) I did two successive batches, so I didn't let them cool down. I also read that if the rings are on too tight, it could casue that--which is what I think happened.

So, I will do the finger nail test (darn--I just clipped them), and if not--use right away and boil for at least 10 minutes???

I hear ya Me&, I have 14 quarts of them, and I really don't want to toss them.
 

patandchickens

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miss_thenorth said:
So, I will do the finger nail test (darn--I just clipped them), and if not--use right away and boil for at least 10 minutes???
Or you could reprocess or freeze. (And personally I would not get overly carried away with 'right away' and boiling first, not for tomatoes anyhow. I am not advising anyone to be lax about food safety of course, just reporting what I'd do :p)

Pat
 

me&thegals

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No kidding. And MTN, you don't really need nails. Just use your fingertips to pick up the jars. The lid should hold if the seal is appropriate.

Another thing I learned this year about tightening the rings before processing: Just tighten it as much as you can do with your fingertips alone. I used to crank those puppies on using my entire hand. The jars actually need to release some air from inside as the heating process causes the contents inside to expand. Then, the cooling process lets the contents shrink back down (minus some of that air that has gone out from under the lid), and that's what causes the lid to suck back down. You've created a vacuum.

You probably all knew this already, but I didn't until now and thought it was kind of cool. A good explanation for not overtightening lids.
 
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