1 inch of headspace is recommended for anything pressure canned. Were the lids finger tight? Was the pressure a bit too high and force out too much liquid? You still have time to reprocess. I pressure can all my Salsa. Good Luck

I don't remember than Annie's recipe specifies headspace. 1 inch is standard for low-acid pressure-canned products.

Loss of liquid from jars is pretty common with pressure-canning, especially when you're first learning. There are lots of reasons why you might lose product; headspace isn't necessarily the issue or might not have been the only issue. You might want to run through this list and see if any other possibility applies.

1. Leaving wrong amount of headspace when filling jars. Leave:
1 inch headspace for LOW ACID foods such as most meats and vegetables.
1 ¼ inch headspace for chicken and rabbit.
½ inch headspace for HIGH ACID foods such as fruits, tomatoes, and fruit juices.
¼ to ½ inch headspace for pickles and relishes as directed.
¼ inch headspace for jams and jellies.
Check USDA instructions for each food.

2. Food packed so tightly that liquid did not fill the spaces between pieces of food.

3. Starchy foods may absorb some of the liquid.

4. Liquid added to cover cold raw food was not hot enough when placed in canner.

5. Air bubbles not removed at time of packing. Use a plastic spatula around the inside of the jar to remove air bubbles.

6. Jars processed in boiling water bath not covered with 1-2 inches of water.

7. Pressure canner not sufficiently exhausted.

8. Allowing pressure to fluctuate or sudden lowering of temperature during processing.

9. Too sudden changes in temperature when processing period is over. (If the canner cools too quickly while the contents of the jar remain at a much higher temperature, the liquid will boil over. The contents of the jar and the canner have to cool down gradually from 240°F to 212°F. The "coming down" period should be gradual and even.)

10. Opening the petcock before the pressure has returned to zero. (When the pressure has returned to zero, open the petcock very cautiously and if steam escapes, close and wait a few minutes. This avoids cooling the atmosphere around the jars too fast which causes liquid to boil over.)

11. Letting the canner stand too long after pressure returned to zero. It should be opened within a couple of minutes after it returned to zero pressure.

I hope this helps.

Carol

It's possible I let the canner stand too long after the pressure dropped to zero. I don't think I have any way of knowing. But I think it's probably the headspace, since a couple of the jars sealed fine.

Thanks!

Julie

I re-processed with an inch of headspace and made sure not to do any of the things on Carol's list, but only three of the six jars sealed. They didn't boil over like last time -- the rims and seals look clean.

As far as this batch is concerned, I give up. I stuck the three jars in the fridge, and I'm serving them at a barbecue this weekend. But what could have gone wrong? Is it possible that I got a bad box of lids? I've never had this many jars not seal. I've done a lot more BWB than pressure canning, so I keep thinking it must have something to do with the different process.

Any help is appreciated. I'm very discouraged right now.

Julie

OK, you've got me. I really think bad lids are quite unlikely. I had that happen maybe 20 years ago when there was a whole series of bad lids, but not recently. The lid problem has basically been resolved except for the occasional with new cases, and that can be identified with inspection before use.

So my guess is something else is going on. Are you venting the canner a full 10 minutes?

If you can describe exactly what you did during bottling we may be able to identify some small factor that has caused the problem.

Don't give up. It's just a matter of determining the difficulty and once solved that will lead to successful processing for everything else.

Carol

Julsie,

The exact same thing happened to me with Annie's Salsa and I figured out what was going on. Do you have a glass top stove? If so, then you have to be careful to bring the pressure up SLOWLY in your canner. I bought a glass top stove last year and the first thing I made was Annie's Salsa. Yep, I had a lot of boil over and none of my lids sealed, even with 1 inch head space.

I tried it again and the same thing happened. I discovered, unlike my previous heating coil stove, the glass top heats up VERY fast and was causing the pressure in my canner to rise too quickly, thus the salsa boil over and no lids sealing.

So now, whenever I pressure can, I have to slowly notch my temp gauge on my stove every few minutes until it comes up to pressure and my problem has been solved (knocks on wood).

Even if you don't have a glass top stove, try bringing the pressure up at a slower, more steady pace, and see if that helps.

One other possibility, though sounds like unlikely is an OLD box of lids.
My mom gave me some one time and I think only about 30% sealed. I ended up pitching them all.
Deanna

Old lids! I bet that's it. I bought them at one of those farm country hardware/feed stores that seems to have a fine layer of dust over everything. I thought it was fresh dust, but maybe not!

For some reason, I thought you were supposed to bring the canner up to pressure as quickly as possible. Huh. But I really don't think the salsa boiled over the second time. I opened the jars that didn't seal, and the rims are perfectly clean. Unlike the first time, when there was salsa caked on the lids, crusted on the rings, and trailing down the outsides of the jars. I'll try going slower next time I use the pressure canner and see if it makes any difference.

Thanks for your help, everyone!
Julie

Julie, I leave a one inch headspace and rarely have boil over, but I do sometimes just run across a bunch of lids that don't seal. I can't tell you whether it's me or the lids, but sometimes I'll have a whole canner full of things that just don't seal well, other times I'm 100% successful. It's one of the vagaries of my canning, LOL.

I always used to pressure can that salsa without incident, until I got the acidity level matter resolved. I am also leaning toward the "brought up to pressure too quickly" theory.

good luck on your next batch. Somehow, I think there will be more salsa in your future, I just seem to use a LOT of it.

Annie

Many years ago the original lid rubber sealing coumpound did dry out and get crumbly and cracked. About that last 10 years or so, the lid compound has been changed to a silicone based, and has held up much better to age and softness. They still recommend soaking the lids in hot water (NOT boiling) however, so the seal is softer and will give with pressure from the ring.I don't pressure can anything as I have no pressure canner here, so all my stuff is high in acid. I may have to get one someday if I want to can whole roasted red peppers.

LOL, Annie! You're right, there's lots of salsa in my future. I'm going out tomorrow to buy more tomatoes so we can use up the rest of the hot peppers DH bought. We bought some kind of banana peppers or something at the farmers' market from a very nice man who didn't speak much English. And the produce stand with all the lovely tomatoes also had beautiful jalapenos. Then I sent DH to the grocery store for cilantro, and he came back with habaneros. I have another salsa recipe I want to try, but I think it will be two or three batches before we have all those hot peppers put away!

Guess it's a good thing the car's out of commission. It's currently duct-taped together, so that's my excuse for staying home one day this week to catch up on canning.

Ken -- whole roasted red peppers sound like a fabulous idea. Mmm, now my stomach is growling.

Julie

Julie,

Once you develop an addicti....err, knack for Annie's Salsa, you'll never have enough. I'm bummed; I've been so incredibly busy these past few months that I'm out of salsa and chicken stock. I've even had to resort to....gasp...buying from the store. Nothing even compares.

Although I made a beautiful batch of Very Berry jam two weeks ago, it's not salsa!

Sigh.

Gardengrl, you make your own chicken stock?!? I bow before your canning superiority. Do you have a recipe?

I canned Thanksgiving turkey broth last year, but it seemed to lose a lot of flavor. And it was REALLY good before canning. Might just freeze it this year.

Julie

Hmmn. Just wanted to say I haven't experienced stock losing flavor after canning. Well, maybe I'd better qualify that. Some herbs/spices lose flavor and some get stronger.

I had really good luck with post-Thanksgiving turkey broth.

Carol

Julie,

Well, it was basically chicken broth. My recipe pretty much follows the BBB directions. I roast my chicken pieces-parts with vegetables (carrots, onion, celery, and garlic) for about an hour till nice and brown. Then take the chicken pieces-parts & veggies and throw them all into a big stock pot, cover with water and herbs (whatever I feel like...bay leaves, thyme, basil), maybe add a little white wine to the water, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 2 hours. Strain broth into another container, throw out chicken pieces-parts, veggies, herbs, and chill broth in the refrigerator over night.

The next day, skim off any coagulated fat on top of the broth, reheat to a simmer, prep canning jars, and process according to the time table for chicken broth in the BBB.

I've found that adding a head or two of garlic and a good amount of herbs increases the flavor. None of my chicken stock batches taste the same, as I throw in what ever I have at the time or what I'm in the mood for.

It's a long process, but well worth it.

Okay, I'm resurrecting this thread because it happened again. We did a batch of Annie's salsa in the pressure canner and four out of eight jars sealed. What could I possibly be doing wrong? It's not the lids. I've done a few things in the BWB in the meantime, and they've all sealed perfectly. Here's my process (sorry, this post is a mile long):

Put about two inches of water in the bottom of the canner. Fill clean jars with enough water to weigh them down, then set them in the canner to get hot. Turn the heat to medium-low, so the water is hot, maybe simmering a little, but not really boiling.

Cook salsa. Pour hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace.

Wipe rims.

Top with lids that have been sitting in hot (not boiling) water long enough for the seals to get a little gummy.

Turn rings until finger tight, not too tight. (Do they need to be tighter for pressure canning than for BWB?)

Arrange jars in hot canner.

Lock lid onto canner, but don't drop the weight down. Bring to a boil slowly -- mine takes ten or fifteen minutes, I think.

When steam starts flowing, wait ten minutes, then drop the weight.

When the weight starts rocking and wiggling, start your timer for the processing.

When the timer goes off, remove the canner from the heat and wait for it to depressurize.

When the weight stops wiggling and you can lift it without hearing steam hiss out, remove the lid.

Wait ten minutes before removing jars from the canner to cool.

OK, I'm quite befuddled. Is there anyone in your area who can partner you during this process and monitor? Sometimes there's a small, seemingly insignificant detail that makes the difference.

How are you wiping the rims? May seem trivial, but maybe something's going on there.

Also, I usually keep the jars quite hot and actually have the water boiling or nearly at the boil when I put the filled jars in. I get it up to the flowing steam point pretty quickly, then, once vented the 10 minutes, gradually and carefully bump the heat down when the gauge gets to about 5 pounds pressure so that by the time it reaches 10 pounds the heat setting is steady. (Obviously I've put on the weight.)

That doesn't work with a weighted-only canner. I also have a gas range and that changes things.

I'm really wondering about your stove and how successfully it's maintaining a steady temperature/pressure. Fluctuations up and down are notorious for loss of product and seal failures and I know a lot of owners of newer electric stoves have been struggling with the canning issue because with a large canner on the burner the heat cycles on and off even though you may not have touched the control. Ranges differ so this may or may not be an issue for you.

Check your manual and it might also be worthwhile to call the service line for your cooktop/range and get some advice from them. Sadly, some manufacturers don't recommend canning at all.

I really hope somehow we can figure out what the problem is. That rate of seal failure is very abnormal. Once you get some experience you should be able to go all season without a seal failure, or minimally maybe one or two, depending upon how much canning you're doing. An experienced canner may go years without losing a jar to a failed seal.

Oh, and yes, it sounds like you're tightening the rings just right. There's no difference between BWB and pressure canning.

Carol

I'm wiping the rims with a damp paper towel, then running a finger over them to check that they're clean.

The strange thing is that I don't remember having this problem when pressure canning last year. I may have lost a few, but definitely not this many.

Unfortunately, I don't know anybody who actually does any canning, other than the folks here! I'm on my own on this one.

I have a coil electric stove, with a heavy duty canning element. I'll have to see if I can find the manual (the stove came with the house) or call the manufacturer.

I've been setting the dial to 5 or 6 for pressure canning. In my experience, that's the lowest setting that will still bring a large pot of water to boil. Maybe if I went back to using a higher temp, the burner would be less likely to cycle off? Last year, I remember reading something that said to turn a burner on HI (which I never do when cooking, because it just turns bright orange and smokes) to bring the canner up to pressure, then nudge it down to a comfortable setting. When I reprocess these, I'll set it at 8 and see if that makes a difference.

Julie

Well, a canning element should work great, though with it turning orange and smoking (no food spills?) I'm wondering if it's malfunctioning in some manner.

We wouldn't want you turning it up high if it seems like a safety issue.

It could also be the stove controls themselves, which still might come back to the manufacturer.

Try the higher heat, a 7 or 8. You could also speed things up by pouring quite hot or even boiling water in the bottom of your canner as long as the jars are hot enough to avoid thermal shock. Don't let them sit out once filled. Put each in the canner as soon as it's ready.

The wiping of the rims sounds fine. But just as a fail-safe you might try wiping the rim with a paper towel or cloth dipped in vinegar. That really cleans it up.

I'm really sorry you're on your own there. I know that makes it hard. I admire the way you're sticking it out and not giving up on this.

By the way, what brand of pressure canner are you using? New or old? Does it have a gasket?

(I'm starting to feel a little like a detective, here, LOL.)

Good luck,

Carol

Julie, this is a silly question, but I'll ask anyway...are you using a canning rack/plate on the bottom of your canner (i.e. the jars aren't sitting directly on the bottom of the canner)?