This is my first time canning anything. I canned up some tomato sauce and after 24 hrs I noticed i had an air pocket in the middle and a bunch of small bubbles at the bottom of 2 jars.
I sterilized the jars for about 15 min in boiling water. My sauce was in the fridge from the day before when I poured it so it was cold going into the jars. Then I boiled them for about 50 minutes, around the 30 min mark I had to add more water due to the being slightly out of the water. Their lids are sealed and don't pop when I push on them.
So, is this safe to eat?
by dominate34
10 Comments
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Hi OP, glad you’re asking. There are a few concerns here. First off, not knowing your recipe, we can’t tell you if it’s safe or not. For example, did you peel your tomatoes? Did you add other ingredients that are low acid? Did you add acid? If not, that’s a concern. Secondly, your sauce was supposed to be hot when it went into the jars. It’s okay to make it the day before, but then you should be heating the sauce and putting hot sauce into hot jars into the hot water bath. Thirdly, your jars did not remain fully covered by at least 1 inch of water throughout the processing time, which is a problem.
Here is an example of a recipe from a reputable source for tomato sauce: [https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/standard-tomato-sauce/](https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/standard-tomato-sauce/)
You no longer need to boil your canning jars beforehand as long as they are being processed in the water bath for more than ten minutes. The sauce should be hot prior to jarring up, that means heating it up in a pot after it comes out of the fridge in your case…the processing times take into account the contents are hot (so yours may be under-processed). The jars need to have at least an inch, preferably two inches of water covering the tops at all times..you need to monitor it and add water as soon as you notice it going down to that point. Did you add citric acid or lemon juice to the tomato sauce? That is required to ensure your tomatoes have the correct acidity.
Best practice is to follow an approved recipe and method.
It’s ok to split your canning work over a couple of days and refrigerate what you’ve made then process the next day, but the sauce should have been brought up to a boil before being put in jars and processed. I’m afraid it’s likely under processed and I would not eat it.
Are the little bubbles active? If they are you’re fermenting and I’d suggest opening that jar before it opens itself.
Finally, since we’re not sure what recipe you used to make the sauce we can’t know if it was even safe to can in the first place. This site’s wiki has some great links, or you can look at the National Center for Home Food Preservation, Ball, or various university extension sites for safe methods and recipes. Good luck on your next canning adventure!
The gaps are fairly normal but the bubbles are odd, I’d be concerned about fermenting like the other commenter said.
To further complicate things, there used to be recommended times for cold-packing, but it was essentially doubling the canning time which would be 80-100mins based on altitude. Cold packing is not recommended now.
Best would be to open them, bring sauce to boil, repack, and re-process in hot water (and add acid if you haven’t already). Also best to use new lids.
The small compact bubbles remind me of the bubbles I look for when I make sauerkraut. I would crack that bad boy and see what’s going in there