Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Yesterday, we canned a few jars of diced tomatoes, being sure to add lemon juice to each quart.
Today, we juiced the romas that are now cooking on the stove. However, I have no more lemon juice. So I got out my pH Checker and tested the juiced tomatoes. They measured 4.3 on the pH scale and therefore do not need any lemon juice! Whew!
A pH of less than 4.6 is safe for canning using a boiling water bath. Just thought I'd share.

That's great! I need to get a pH checker!

Linda

I got it first to check the acidity of some pickled beets for which I followed an old recipe that called the brine a sweeter version of another recipe.

that's great! mine usually just skirt the 4.6...usually 4.7 sigh. so i just now routinely use lemon juice or vinegar....if i need to use the vinegar i'll use cider, not the white.

So when we juiced more tomatoes, and DH planned to make a spaghetti type sauce (no meat), I decided to do the pH testing for that batch. I took a sample of only tomatoes, then a second sample after other vegetables were added (zucchini, eggplant, green peppers, onion, garlic).
The plain sample was pH 3.8, and the mixed sample was 4.3.
I am so glad that I got the pH Checker.