Several good things happened. The air bubbled out of the jars during the boil nicely. The caps gave a nice satisfying pop during cooling and are securely in place now.

But I have concerns. For one, despite using the bubble tool, there were a ton of tiny bubbles in the finished product. In some, there was so much air that it materially increased the headspace, like in the attached picture (or there was another cause of all that increased headspace. Even the ones without that drastic a loss ended up with more headspace than I'd left originally. Here's one of the jars upside down to make it easier to see how much headspace: http://www.flickr.com/photos/homebrew901/9712335026/ In all instances I left 1/2 inch when I put the jars in the canner.

Can (hah!) you tell me what went wrong and how to prevent a reoccurrence? Before summer's out I'd like to do many pounds of Jersey and heritage tomatoes.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Was the water in the canner clear or did it smell of tomatoes and have particles floating in it? If so, some of the liquid siphoned out of the jars, perhaps due to over-packing.

I think a bit more information is needed to provide the most useful assistance.

Carol

Agree with Carol that more info is needed.

Dave

Those are pint jars. I also canned one quart jar. I'll definitely be using quarts in the future for whole/halved tomatoes -- the pints are just too small to hold enough tomatoes to make it worth it. Or should I really be crushing them in there? I lightly pressed on the tomatoes as I added them but didn't make an effort to pack them down to maximize the number in the jar. I took my inspiration from the cans of San Marzanos I buy -- plenty of tomatoes, not free-floating but not tightly packed either.

Raw pack also explains the bubbles as it is air that was in the fruit and is now loose in the jar. Another reason why hot pack works better.

Over time the fruit above the liquid will darken. It is still safe but unappetizing so can be tossed after the jar is opened.

In general I think most of us find that either the Crushed Tomatoes with no added liquid instructions work the best. See link below - sorry I forgot it before. The water method really dilutes the flavor. Or if you want them whole or halved then try the Whole or Halved Tomatoes (packed raw without added liquid) instructions but note the long processing time of 85 mins.

Lemon juice isn't optional. :) No tomato is acid enough as they all sit right on the borderline within a few tenths of a point of each other..

For future reference - anything that will be processed for 10 mins. or more doesn't require the use of sterilized/boiled jars.

So it sounds as if you did everything right and I agree that quarts are better than pints unless you use the Crushed Tomatoes instructions. I find pints work well for them.

Enjoy your canned tomatoes!

Dave