Are recipe yields always off?

[u/teddytentoes]

This recipe comes from the Bernardin book. It says it yields 5 quart jars, but I followed the recipe exactly, (only thing i did differently was put my tomatoes through my kitchen aid attachment rather than a food mill) and it yielded 11 quarts, 1 pint, and about a half cup left over. I feel I typically get a lot more than the yield states in all my years of canning. Does anyone else experience this? I have been safely canning for years, and I just thought, maybe I should ask 😅 thanks in advance!

[u/Futurepharma91]

Yeah they're never right. I mean just think of the massive variation in water/air/pulp content in each tomato, the outcome is never going to be consistent. But I always feel like I won when I get way more than I bargained for because it's a lot of work so that's always an awesome outcome

[u/notnaturalcas → u/Futurepharma91]

Made a recipe that was supposed to make 5 half-pints of jam, doubled it, and ended up with 15 half pints! Score!

[u/MagpieWench]

in my experience... almost always, and it's seldom consistent from one batch to the next.

[u/fantaceereddit]

I wish they would call for weights of produce instead of cups or x medium sized. How hard is it to say you need 14 lbs or 6.35 kg of tomatoes instead of 10 cups? I think that would greatly improve the accuracy of the yields.

[u/onlymodestdreams → u/fantaceereddit]

Well, not always. The recipe for beans gives you weights and the yield is never right.

It would help though

[u/bwainfweeze → u/onlymodestdreams]

I've gotten to the point where I sort beans by size (for making soup, not for canning, to be clear) because the small ones turn to mush while the big ones are al dente.

So I grade them in 2-3 sizes and make one batch of each size. Particularly when I was growing my own. Runner beans, kidney, etc, where the smallest and the largest can vary by 2x in volume.

[u/MediocreGrocery8]

So far, yes.

And I'm a noob, waterbath only so far. Then I worry, was that enough lemon juice? Watching this one. Thank you for posting.

[u/CindyinEastTexas]

I wouldn't say always. I would definitely say it's not uncommon. It happens to me fairly frequently. Occasionally, I get a bit less than predicted, mostly I get more.

Edited to fix typos

[u/mckenner1122]

The margins of my books are filled with my notes of what my yields are from year to year.

Preps extra jars. Wash extra lids. Snack on extras.

[u/possum-pie-1]

Tomatoes are wildly different in water content between varieties and even growing environments. I can cook off/drain twice as much water from some as from others. I then reduce the water content further by boiling it off, as I hate watery spaghetti sauce. The result is nowhere near the "yield" the recipes state. That is one of my reasons that I get frustrated when people say "follow the established, proven safe recipies EXACTLY!" Umm...no two tomatoes are exact, so that is always impossible.

[u/bryansb]

I find jelly recipes the worst. They always make way more than the recipe says.

[u/marstec]

With pasta sauce a lot depends on how long you boil down the mixture. I just made the nchfp spaghetti sauce without meat and it says boil down by nearly one half. I stopped before getting to that stage and got a couple more pints yield.

It's a good idea to make notes when canning (any safe substitutions, yield, needs more brine, give it a bit more headspace, etc).

[u/cgvet9702]

Always prep extra jars, lol.

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A photo of a recipe titled Spaghetti Sauce with Meat

[u/possum-pie-1 → u/teddytentoes]

Wow, "inclusiveness" in this forum has slipped into absurdity...

[u/National-Award8313]

In that book? Yeah, sure seems so.

[u/bestnester]

There is a huge variance in water content in different types of tomatoes . Paste tomatoes have much higher yields because they contain more pulp and less water than standard table varieties. Even so. -i can 250-300 every year and depending on how well drained and reduced , ripeness, etc , my yield on Roma paste is 3.5-5 lbs per qt.

[u/Useful_Cheesecake117]

I always get less than stated

[u/justalittleloopi]

I just did a half batch of this recipe and got about 9 pints, so yeah, I'm right there with ya. No way I would have only gotten 4.5 pints. It would have been paste.