That edition is fine. The 2009 changes were mainly "tweaks" and don't reduce the overall safety of the recipes in Topp's book.

However, that is not the book I would recommend for a beginning canner (really, really beginning). For a big book of canning recipes I would recommend the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving or the traditional smaller Ball Blue Book.

Your core source should be the NCHFP (National Center for Home Food Preservation) linked below. Take the free self-paced online course they offer. It can be immensely helpful.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP

Agree 100% with what Carol said. That is a good book but not usually considered one for beginners. What peeked your interest in that particular book vs. some of the introductory books?

Dave

Some links to explore:

NCHFP

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Ball Blue Book

For beginners, I recommend they buy or borrow the Ball Blue Book, it's great for those just starting out, and not very expensive.

Thanks, Everyone! I ordered the Ball Blue Book this weekend because my local libraries do not carry it. I will order the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving as well. The reason the other one caught my eye was part of the name "small-batch". It sounded like something I should start with. Admittedly, I have a problem cooking small batches of anything, so any encouragement I can find to keep things under control, is usually good for me. Just so you have a (scary) view into how I do things, I was introduced to canning tomato sauce the third weekend in August. A month later, I had canned 17 gallons of it, 4-6 batches at a time. In my defense, my tomato plants went nuts this year, so I had the crop to do it. I go through a lot of sauce, but we still have 58 quarts. I also tried apple butter a few weeks go, but the gremlins in my house were caught siphoning it out of the crockpot as it cooked. There were only 2 quarts left when they were done, so we just ate it ;).

Looks like the online class is not available until mid January due to an upgrade. I will do it as soon as I can.

Thanks so much for offering all the advice, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!

This post was edited by DenisePA11 on Mon, Nov 4, 13 at 17:42

Denise, I get carried away also. Small batches just doesn't work for me. If I have the right quantity for their recipes, it disappears as soon as the hubby or grandkids show up.

I'm in between "small batch" (really, who wants to make only 4 jars of jam?) and "cooking for an army" LOL. Good thing is, everything in Small Batch is BWB or fresh/freezer only so you don't have to worry about PC.

But 17 gallons of tomato sauce (x4 for number of jars)?? How many tomato plants did you have? Bad tomato year here, I have to count but I think I've only made a dozen or so quarts (plus some pints of salsa and chili sauce, but way less than 17 gal of tomato product).

I put up that much every other year or so. that's only 68 qts. That's my yearly total for hubby and I. We had a good everything year, so canned more than normal. we usually can for ourselves, plus 1 son with 2 sons+wife, 1 son with 3 kids, my mother and other son, plus ourselves. So 68 qts isn't even 1/4 of the yearly for tomatoes juice/sauce.

I canned 20 pints of new salsa this year and more than 1/2 are gone already. Should have canned 80-100 pints, but didn't realize that 2 grandsons LOVE it and will eat 1-2 pints at one sitting. I guess I'll be doing more next year.

I am so glad to hear that I am not the only one who can't help making large batches of stuff. I have 6 quarts of jambalaya cooking right now for the week :). There are four of us and the kids eat like adults now, so that just reinforces my need to make more food...lol.

We had 12 tomato plants this year and ended up with a nearly six foot high tomato hedge :). After that first batch of PC canning, I was hooked.

Everything I look at now has me wondering if I can can it. I actually feel pretty good with the PC, but the BWB has me a little nervous. Probably completely opposite of most people. I like being able to see the psi and control it. I feel like everything has to be 240 degrees and I can't do that when water boils at 210-211 where I live :). Newbie jitters I guess ...

Denise, just think about BWB like regular boiling. You fill the jars the same, but cover the jars with water and cook for the time. A good hot boil, not super bubbling boil. After awhile, you will get it. The entire process doesn't take any longer, but it will heat the house up more.

I had 3 boys and we really canned, more than now, when they were growing up. In the 80s, our grocery bill was only about $20 ($40 in today's dollars), but we had an entire room in our basement full of filled jars. Room was 10x12.

I have a really hard time cutting down. I can't just do a peck of something, it's got to be bushels or it's not worth the effort.

Marla

You must still be under 1000ft elevation, so no adjustment necessary. I'm right at 997ft (plus the height of the joists/floor/stove) so I usually just add a minute to acidified foods in the BWB for good measure, don't bother with jams and jellies. No adjustment needed for PCing at that altitude.

If you're PCing, you are using a canner with a weight set or tested gauge, right?

I have found my people :). I have an old family recipe for the tomato sauce and it is based on a peck. My first reaction was "Really? Why in the world would I do this for 6 quarts???" Admittedly, the last harvest of tomatoes I had for sauce was about 118 lbs. It was too much to do in one day...it was bad enough that I had to do math to figure out the rest of the ingredients....lol

I have a Presto Pressure Cooker, I think the model is 01781, but I would have to check that to be sure. It has a gauge and a weight that goes over the steam pipe. I have my grandmother's PC as well, but since I don't trust it as a pressure cooker, it makes a nice stock pot ;) and it is one of the two I use for cooking the sauce. It weighs a ton, but I can do a bushel's worth of sauce in it and still have room to stir.

You have a good one.

I have done the farmers market for years and the not sold produce becomes my food. sometimes there might be 4-6 bushel of something to do up. We do green beans a bushel at a time. But we both come from old farm families that always had 1-2 acres of veggies and 10-15 fruit trees.

I don't garden so much, but I do know people that I can get major amounts from.

I have an old family recipe for the tomato sauce

Since you mention "other ingredients" I assume we aren't talking about plain tomato sauce? How does your recipe compare to the tested and approved recipes?

I have a Presto Pressure Cooker, I think the model is 01781, but I would have to check that to be sure. It has a gauge and a weight that goes over the steam pipe.

Have you had the gauge tested annually for accuracy? If not we can tell you how to convert that one to a weights canner for safety.

Dave

I can't wait to do more stuff this spring and summer. My mom lives in southern NJ and they claim to be the blueberry capital of the world....we shall see.

Dave, I had my county co-op test my gauge when I got it and they said they will do it as often as I want ... score. I have not read much about the weighted gauge, so I will need to do some research. As far as the recipe goes, I followed it up until the processesing time and pressure part. At that point I went with what the PC manual said which was much higher. Something like 15 psi for 20 mins i believe. I am happy to submit the recipe for review and critique.

I looked back through my notes when I got home and there were some modifications to this that I forgot we did. First, no oil. The tomato paste had some and we did not add more. Also, the lemon juice was upped to two cups, but that was for each pot and there were 2.5 batches per stock pot. And we put in more crushed pepper..to taste....we have one really hot batch.

This is why I keep notes as I go :)

This post was edited by DenisePA11 on Tue, Nov 5, 13 at 18:58

Can't read the card but I think I see peppers and onions plus the garlic so this is more of a spaghetti or a marinara sauce rather than tomato sauce, right? They all have different processing times and methods.

But we don't usually recommend canner manuals - way too outdated. Check the link below for the proper processing times and pressures for your altitude with a dial gauge canner since that is what you are using.

What is your altitude?

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Canning spaghetti sauce

Here is the ingredient list of from the pic above:

1 peck tomatoes (12 lbs.)
7 onions
4 green peppers
1 garlic
1/2 c. Oil
1 t. lemon juice
1/2 c. Sugar
1/8 c. salt
1 t. oregano
2 t. red pepper
1 t. basil
1 t. parsley
1/2 t. allspice
4 cans tomato paste (12 oz.)

And the recipe card does say it's spaghetti sauce. Just trying to make things easier. (this is all I can do from here on out, I've got no experience with this type of stuff)

Rodney

Thanks, Dave! Yes the old recipe is closer to the recipe you linked to. The brown sugar is an interesting addition as I have always added molasses to tomato sauce I make for dinner. I can't wait to try all these recipes. It seems the ones I have inherited were just amended with the latest and greatest rules each and every time they came out :). I might just have to find new ones that are less tampered with :).

Our altitude is right around 820. So I way over processed at 15 psi and 20 mins...sigh.

The linked recipe does not have any lemon juice or citric acid in it. Is that because of the pressure canning? That would have saved me a lot of time trying to get the sugar balance right. Although, it was just terrible to have to keep spooning off "quality control" samples :).

I have a call in to a larger co-op a few counties away because they seem to have a Master Food Preserver as a volunteer. I think I need a tutor or remedial canning.

I am looking forward to the online class that should be back up right after the holiday craziness comes to an end for me.

I am so grateful to you all for being willing to help me put. Everyone here seems so nice. Some of the posters on other boards I have read are down right nasty to each other. I am glad I joined here instead.

We didn't used to add lemon juice or any acid to tomatoes in the past. this has been changed. Many tomatoes that are grown now are sweeter in taste and lower in acid. They are bred that way. It's just easier to add the lemon juice/citric acid than to figure out whether your tomatoes themselves are acidy enough.

A tomato may be sweeter due to higher sugar content but not lower in acid. Conversely, a tomato may taste very acidic but merely be lower in sugar. Its pH may still be borderline or even higher.

Growing conditions and exposure to hours of sunlight as well as degree of ripeness can also affect pH. As tomatoes are generally marginal anyway, it doesn't take much to move them above the line for safe BWB processing.

Carol

Agree with Carol. We just know more stuff now than we did then. :)

Tomatoes have always been considered a marginal pH when it comes to BWB canning and the pH of most all varieties tests out within 1-3 tenths of a point. In other words the brix, the sweet taste, of a variety may change but the pH itself doesn't.

But then when research proved that pH rises over time on the shelf rather than remaining stable as assumed and that pathogens can grow in that marginal increase, the need for more acidity to increase that margin of safety when BWB canning them became apparent.

Dave

I'm stating what Purdue University has stated on some varieties. Jet star is one that is 'lower acid' and a sweeter taste. Also the yellow/white varieties are lower acid and sweeter somewhat, if you can get over the visual difference. I live within 15 miles of PU and they are the only one that the state of Indiana allows to be used as reference.

Just add the lemon juice/citric acid to all tomatoes and be on the safe side. It doesn't add up to much and doesn't change the taste enough to notice.

My in-laws ran a market garden with 100's of tomato varieties. For their own canning they preferred Jet Star but were cognizant of its lower-acidity and implemented the addition of citric acid as soon as the standard was changed. Jet Star, of course, is a red tomato.

Purdue refers to so-called low-acid tomatoes and further says However, the low-acid tomatoes are just as acidic as other tomatoes. They just have a higher sugar content, which makes them taste less acidic.

Texas A& M expands on that by saying There are some varieties that are slightly less acidic than others, but this difference is so slight that there is no real difference in taste or in how the tomatoes should be processed. Some yellow-fruited types are slightly less acidic than the normal red varieties, but not enough to make any difference. Research conducted by the USDA indicates that all varieties available to the home gardener are safe for water bath processing as long as good quality fruit are used. Flavor differences which exist between varieties are not because of differences in acid content, but balances of the sugar to acid ratio.

The main thing is that adding lemon juice or citric acid assures safety regardless of where the tomatoes being processed fall on the line.

Carol

Mostly it's semantics Marla - when they say "lower acid" it is a tenth of a degree or so. Jet Star has a pH of 4.7 vs. the 4.5 most other varieties test at. Some of the yellows, like Persimmon Yellow are 4.1 so even more acidic but they don't taste acidic because their brix (sugar) measurement is 6.2 (compared to most with a brix of 4.0-4.5).

Link below is to a chart of the pH of some 50-75 varieties.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll down to the chart

I am learning so much! Thanks!