Hot water bathing tomatoes...

Do you completely cover the jars with water? I filled the container to the bottom of the rings and they aren't wanting to seal after boiling for 45 minutes.

According to our recipe (my wife) she covers the entire jar with 1" of water and boils for 40 minutes for pints, 45 minutes for quarts.

Thank you.

Our family has been hot packing tomatoes for over 75 years. Never water bathed a jar...

I cover jars completely when doing a hot water bath

Ball blue book of canning, covered is correct.

Pressure canning, you only need a couple inches of water in the canner. Water bath requires fully submerged jars. Although, I am kinda surprised none of them sealed. I've dumped hot soup in jars and screwed the lids on, let them sit on the counter to cool and they sealed. Obviously, they were not safe for long term storage, but they sealed up.

yup cover and if you add a half cup of white vinegar to the water , you don't get the calcium scale on jars , if you don't have calcium in your water I guess not an issue , here it is hazy jars if you don't put a little in

As others have said fully covered.

I am a little unclear based on your initial post. Did you hot water bath them for 45 minutes and then take them out and they won't seal? Or are they still in the canner? They won't seal until they come out of the canner and start to cool.

I have had issues with jars not sealing if the rings were too tight before they went into the canner. Just finger tip tight.

That could be the problem as I don't know my own strength. I'm pressure canning now. Third go round.

Yeah... after a couple unfortunate incidents my wife doesn't let me put the rings on anymore.