My husband and I have a small farm and decided to venture into canning. We have a "Power Cooker" pressure cooker and successfully canned string beans. We also made a delicious homemade salsa, but found out a few days later that there's a lot more to canning than fresh food and achieving a good seal. Thankfully, we have more tomatoes, so we will attempt a new batch to freeze. We're wondering if the current jars of salsa can be saved ..

The Power Cooker has an automatic feature for canning, which processes for 30 minutes. We used pint size jars but did not include lemon juice or vinegar. All jars sealed properly. Should we trash them?

We also found out that we should have a rack for our power cooker and we don't. Is the rack necessary?

Thank you so much for any help!

Salsa must be acidified - sounds like you made a chunky sauce. You'll have to throw them out (jars and all) since they're over 24 hours old. I wouldn't trust your beans either. How many psi does your Power Cooker say it gets to?

I hope you haven't sold or eaten any of those beans! We can't even sell low-acid canned foods in our state, and only recently have been allowed to sell acidified foods (with more requirements including testing for pH).

Please take the time to go through the NCHFP instructions on using a Boiling Water Bath canner and a Pressure Canner. I highly recommend taking their online course (free). And get a Ball Blue Book. Start with jams and jellies - they're safer and most states allow residential farmers to sell them without restrictions (though you may have to grow the fruit as we have to in CT). Welcome to the forum!

The volume is too small, it heats up and cools down far to quickly which invalidates the given processing times. Plus the pressures and times cannot be adequately controlled for safe processing.

You may can highly acidic foods in it if you wish rather than using a BWB with only minimal risk IF the proper amounts of acid are added. But you will be affecting the quality of the end product Low acid foods cannot be safely processed in it.

Home canning has a learning curve, especially pressure canning. So for your own safety and that of your family I strongly encourage you to do some research first with the proper sources and then invest in the proper equipment. The risk simply isn't worth it.

Yes, the salsa you made should be discarded and done so very carefully. Sheila linked you to NCHFP, the definitive source to begin with and I suggest you also invest in at least the minimum canning book - the Ball Blue Book. And please, keep the Power Cooker for cooking only.

Dave

I'd wrap the jars in newspaper so they don't break and put in a heavy trash bag, or better, a box. I don't know what happens if your garbage truck breaks them?

Just wondering - what salsa recipe did you use that doesn't call for any vinegar or lemon/lime juice?

The salsa recipe was a chilli's copycat that we altered to our own taste.

Both were done in the Pressure Cooker.

The USDA recommends that a canner be large enough to hold at least 4 quart jars to be considered a pressure canner for the USDA published processes. That means test of 4 quart jars sitting on a rack, lid in place and the canner sealed. If they don't fit, it's not a canner.

As Dave pointed out 'The volume is too small, it heats up and cools down far to quickly which invalidates the given processing times'. Your beans and your salsa are underprocessed. They aren't safe to consume.

I have an electric pressure cooker, I know how quickly they come to pressure, cook, then cool - it's MANY minutes faster than canning in a traditional canner. I would never can in mine, the risk is too great.

That point alone, regardless of the way it was canned, means the salsa must be thrown out. You simply cannot safely home can personal or untested recipes. That is the first rule of safe home canning.

Pardon me for being blunt but this is vital. You should NOT keep/eat that salsa. You should not make more of that salsa no matter how it is processed. Untested personal recipes for salsa, vacuum sealed in a jar, can be lethal.

The green beans might be safe but there is no way to know. The problem with them is the canner They are under-processed because of the canner you used. They didn't get enough time and the temperature was not high enough for long enough to make them safe. Any canning-experienced person would pitch them because of the high risk. It is your choice but please give it very careful consideration.

Dave