First you will have to determine why your jars aren't sealing properly. Are the rims of the jars impeccably clean and nick free? Are you heating the lids to a boil and keeping them hot before placing on the jars? Are you overfilling the jars? Are you not tightening the rings tight enough or too tight? These are only a few of the things I can think of why your jars aren't sealing.

I don't think you can reprocess pickles but I can't see why you shouldn't have a problem reprocessing the sauce.

i think it probably has to do with the correct tightening of the rings (i'm not sure i always tighten and then loosen back a little to the correct point). most of them are fine (a tight enough seal to lift the jar by the lid once the ring is removed and the jar wiped down). it's just one jar per every other batch or so that has a flexing lid after sitting overnight. my instinct was correct, then! i tossed the jar of pickles (kept the jar), but thought that i might be able to redo the sauce.

thanks.

You can only safely reprocess within 24 hours of the intial canning. Otherwise enough bacteria will have grown that you cannot insure it will all be destroyed during the next processing. So, either reprocess within that amount of time or refrigerate and use within a day or two. That, or freeze those jars.

Why would you pitch the pickles? If I ever have leftovers or a no sealer, I put in the refrig and use. About the only reason I can think of not to reseal pickles would be they might get mushy.
I am extremely anal about wiping my jar rims and threads, fill to proper head space. Rings I screw on, then one more twist to get that nice convex lid in the canner and when cool hear the "ping" of the lids. It's a great sound, lol.
I won't even answer the phone if I am filling and lidding up. My daughter, (14) who doesn't not care to learn canning knows no one bothers Mom when canning.
Sure, add in the failed refrigerated jar when making another batch, waiting no longer than a week.
This past weekend I added whole plum maters in the sauce that were previously canned and I didn't use up.
Makes for a thicker sauce, I put in the whole plum, then about the end time of reduction when I am adding my herbs I use a potato masher and mash the plum maters in the sauce.

busylizzie,

i think i like your reply best! i've already begun the comingled batch of sauce (one day old pint jar's worth into 6 quarts of purée all to be reduced to about 4 quarts of thick goodness with some additions per the recipe).

worst case scenario... nearly my entire extended family is wiped out just after christmas (those who don't fly in will be responsible for keeping the gene pool going, i guess).

As already mentioned - you have a sealing problem you need to solve first. Once that is resolved, then please follow Linda Lou's advice and restrict yourself to the 24 hours period for reprocessing. That is the safe, tested and approved guideline. Longer than that the risk of contamination increases 10 fold even if refrigerated so why contaminate the new batch with the old?

Dave

gotcha.

thanks