It always helps to know the specific recipe you're using and the source.

But speaking generally, green tomatoes are acid and the pickling solution is acid, so nobody's going to get food poisoning. What could happen with shelf-storage is a reduced longevity and possible spoilage. Assuming it's a standard recipe with at least 50-50 vinegar in the pickling solution, even that isn't likely.

Even though the lids weren't heated, the water bath would have been sufficient to form a seal, but it's a weaker one, which means air could get in leading to softening/loss of quality or lids come unsealed with time (especially if there are fluctuations of temperature in the storage area).

It's your call. You could leave the jars on the shelf, you could refrigerate (though frankly in this case I don't think it's necessary), or you could re-process with fresh lids and feel comfortable. If you re-process, remember you start from scratch, emptying and cleaning jars, re-heating pickling solution, etc. etc.

If it were me and we're talking about a small batch, I'd leave well enough alone and just eat those pickles first.

Carol

I agree with Carol. I wouldn't hesitate to eat them.
And for what its worth. Heating the lids is not a sterilization thing, it's to soften the sealing compound so it forms a good seal when processing. They should never be boiled, just heated at low temp to soften. I put lids and bands in a small pot on a back burner, on LOW, while I'm doing everything else. The lids are ready when I am!

Enjoy your pickles!

Deanna

I agree with Carol and Deanna about the lids issue - it's not a big concern. The big concern is the recipe you used and how much vinegar it contained? As Carol said the brine needs to be at least 50 percent vinegar MINIMUM to be safe and a higher percentage of vinegar is much safer.

There are lots of unsafe recipes on line for canning things. The approved source is linked below. So compare your recipe to the approved pickling instructions from NCHFP - note 2 recipes for pickling green tomatoes. Or post the recipe you used so we can tell if it is a safe one or not.

Dave

PS: Welcome to the forum! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Pickling Instructions

Thank you for the responses! I feel better about the lids now. :)

Also thanks for the NCHFP link, I'll bookmark it for next time. The recipe I followed is here: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1636,130183-253192,00.html

I didn't have anywhere close to five pounds of tomatoes, so I halved the pickling solution (1 qt water, 1/2 quart vinegar, 1/2 cup salt). The quantities in the recipe I followed are the same as the quantities in the NCHFP dill tomato pickle recipe.

For the canning process, I followed the Ball Blue Book instructions for high-acid foods, which I found online.

I've posted some before and after pictures on my blog.

Is it normal for the pickles to look kind of dull like that after the bath? I mean, I guess I should expect something immersed in vinegar and water to get saturated, but I was surprised to see them looking so "pickle-like" so soon.

Well, that's interesting. How is it a dill pickle without dill?

Now I'm concerned, though the lids aren't the issue. As I mentioned initially (and Dave gave it even more emphasis)that recipe should be minimally 50-50 vinegar and water. The one you used is 2:1 water and vinegar. I'd guess it's an old recipe coming from the time when 10% vinegar, not today's 5%, was in common use.

So basically your pickling brine is too weak. Not only that, but looking at the recipe, if you used the other vegetables listed and the garlic, you've got a problem. It's not a high-acid mixture, it's a low-acid one.

That batch is now of doubtful safety.

Carol

I thought the same thing about the dill! (I added some anyway.)

I'm confused now, though, because when I followed the link Dave posted and looked at the NCHFP's recipe for green tomato pickles, it also has 2 parts water to 1 part vinegar (I'm looking at this one).

Other recipes at that site do have 50/50 water and vinegar. I'm wondering if the acidity in the tomatoes means it's okay to use less vinegar? (Just speculation there, I really have no idea...)

The other vegetables I used were onions, garlic, serrano pepper, and celery.

Thanks for the feedback.

The 50-50 measure is a rule-of-thumb minimum for recipes which might not have been tested or do not appear in reliable sources like the Ball Blue Book.

I looked at the Ball Blue Book recipe, since you mentioned that book. Their recipe calls for 50-50. The NCHFP recipe does require a lower ratio of vinegar to water; however, that is a tested recipe with specific amounts of celery and pepper. Notice in that recipe, one stalk of celery and 4 quarters of pepper are added per quart, plus one clove of garlic. That's a pretty low amount, all things considered.

So, if you didn't exceed those amounts per jar (and if there weren't the onion) then yes, you'd be OK.

I think this is a judgment call. You'll have to assess how much of the low-acid veggies you added and decide if that's comparable to the NCHFP recipe. Since the green tomatoes are high-acid, there's more leeway with just green tomatoes than there is a recipe with other additions.

Carl

Thanks for the explanation, that all makes sense. I added more garlic than in the recipe but less pepper and celery, and only a small amount of onion.

I have moved the jars to the fridge and will decide in a few weeks after they've had time to pickle whether we should try eating them.

I wish I had found this site before I got started! I knew I needed to learn about canning but didn't realize that what was actually in the jars would make such a difference. Oh well, now I know for next year.

I'll stick my neck out and say they are "probably" safe if for no other reason than they have more vinegar in them than salsa would even though the added water dilutes it. And they are likely very close to the 1 NCHFP tested recipe that allows for less than 50/50. So I'd probably eat them but I wouldn't plan on long term shelf storage since the pH will rise over time.

But for future reference it's best to stick with tested and approved canning recipes and to stick with the recipe rather than improvising. Adding ingredients changes the pH and it is the pH and the density of the food in the jar that is crucial to safety. BBB and NCHFP are fully approved and accredited sources. The many other recipe sites on the web are not.

Glad you found us too. ;)

Dave

I'd go with Dave on this. Given what you said about the proportion of additions to the green tomatoes, I think they'd be OK for short-term consumption. Refrigeration is better than shelving, but I wouldn't plan to leave them in there indefinitely.

Home canners get into real issues when they start adding low-acid veggies beyond/other than what the recipe calls for.

Not only are some vegetables higher pH (i.e. less acid) or more dense (influencing heat penetration during processing) but there's also the issue of available water. More watery low-acid vegetables will leach water into the brine and as Dave mentioned, that elevates the pH over time. So you need to have a margin of error and it's really hard to feel sure about that with untested/unverified sources.

Happy preserving and welcome to the Forum. It's a bit of a learning curve, but it's worth it.

Carol

Thanks again - I'll let you guys know in a week or two if they turn out to be any good!

This was my first year growing my own veggies and I think next year I'll experiment with preserving them throughout the growing season rather than waiting until the end, now that I know how many tomatoes I'm likely to get over the course of the season. Near the end of the summer I made a batch of bruschetta that was so good... made me wish we had some jars on the shelf to crack open during the winter!

Ellie Topp has a canned bruschetta recipe in Small-Batch Preserving. It's not the same as fresh of course, but definitely better than those flavorless hothouse tomatoes.

Carol