Any Experienced Canners Here? Have question

Maeschak · Sep 23, 2016

Hello All,

I think I mistakenly water bath canned when I should have pressure canned (yesterday morning). Can I go back and put the processed water bath canned jars into the pressure can and re-do it with the pressure canner?

I made 6 of those little jelly jars of a spicy hot sauce and water bath canned. I used: 1.5 purple onions, about 15 cloves of garlic, 2-3 tablespoons of salt, the juice from 3 limes, 2-3 small tomatoes, and about 1/2-1 cup of tiny thai hot chili peppers. For some reason I thought all the onion, garlic, lime juice etc would only require water bath canning but now that I think about I should maybe pressure can for safety. Can I just stick my jars in my pressure canner and can at 10lbs for 40 minutes? (I got the weight and time from an onion canning recipe).

Love the taste of my hot sauce and don't want to kill myself!

Thanks in advance-

Ridgerunner · Sep 24, 2016

It’s the acidity that counts, if the pH is 4.2 or below water bath is OK. Most but not all tomatoes are that acidic plus you are adding a lot of other things. Sometimes the recipes call for adding lemon juice to drop the pH so you can still water bath. I pressure can my spaghetti sauce because the recipe does not call for adding lemon juice. I use a lot of heritage type tomatoes and not all have a low pH.

Does your recipe call for 10 pounds for 40 minutes? I’m not sure where you got the recipe or what it calls for. It’s all about getting the temperature throughout to a certain temperature. The thicker it is the longer it takes. The pressure is about altitude too. If you are above 1000 feet elevation you might need more than 10 pounds. I’m at 1,150 feet elevation so my minimum pressure is 11.5 pounds.

I’d take the lids off and transfer the product to clean jars so you can clean the jar tops really well. Then pressure can with new lids.

Maeschak · Sep 24, 2016

Ridgerunner said:
It’s the acidity that counts, if the pH is 4.2 or below water bath is OK. Most but not all tomatoes are that acidic plus you are adding a lot of other things. Sometimes the recipes call for adding lemon juice to drop the pH so you can still water bath. I pressure can my spaghetti sauce because the recipe does not call for adding lemon juice. I use a lot of heritage type tomatoes and not all have a low pH.

Does your recipe call for 10 pounds for 40 minutes? I’m not sure where you got the recipe or what it calls for. It’s all about getting the temperature throughout to a certain temperature. The thicker it is the longer it takes. The pressure is about altitude too. If you are above 1000 feet elevation you might need more than 10 pounds. I’m at 1,150 feet elevation so my minimum pressure is 11.5 pounds.

I’d take the lids off and transfer the product to clean jars so you can clean the jar tops really well. Then pressure can with new lids.

Great, thanks so much! I will remove lids and pressure can in fresh containers tomorrow morning. (I never checked the acidity I completely made up the hot sauce recipe but got the 10 lbs for 40 minutes from a canned onion recipe. The vast majority of volume in my hot sauce is onions, so I am guessing that the onion weight/time should suffice. Or, maybe I should just remove the lids and keep in the fridge and/or freeze at this point... there is so much salt and 3 limes worth of juice I imagine it will keep awhile without any sort of canning...

Thanks again for your response, I had almost given up hope!

Any Experienced Canners Here? Have question

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