A canning question for you all...

For the past few years I have been making Tomatillo salsa (tomatillos, onions, jalapenos etc.)and canning at 15 # pressure in my pressure cooker for 0 minutes (as for tomatoes). I was looking at some different recipes this year and see that a boiling water bath for 25 (or more) minutes for my 6500 feet in altitude is recommended.
My question is...will the 0 minutes @ 15# in the pressure canner be enough? No one has ever gotten sick before! And also, the new recipes I see all say BOTTLED lemon juice and I use fresh squeezed lemon juice. Is there any health reason for this? Thanks for any thoughts you might have on this.

I think the advocacy of the bottled lemon juice is because it has a consistent acidity level, crucial to making borderline acid foods safe when canned. Fresh lemons may vary in their acidity levels due to age or ripeness. Canning season is the only time I buy bottled lemon juice.

on edit: said gma's originally, which some might misconstrue as Good Morning America LOL.

to about 199F, certainly enough to kill most of the bugs. The ones that survive won't flourish in an acid environment, the theory behind water bath canning for acid foods like tomatoes, pickles, and anything containing vinegar or citrus juice to acidify it.

As for pressure canning by allowing it to come up to pressure and then cool naturally, I would imagine the same internal temperature is achieved. 15 pounds of pressure will heat foods to about 240F if maintained for several minutes, but the temperature of the canned food might vary widely depending on how long it takes your canner to come up to pressure and then for the pressure to fall at 0 minutes. Pressure canning is what kills the spore forming bacteria that invade and poison non acid canned foods.

I think your recipes specify bottled lemon juice because whoever wrote them couldn't bring themselves to squeeze that many lemons. Fresh is always better, IMO, bottled lemon juice always having an off flavor to me.

that if a boiling water bath was sufficient that pressure canning would obtain much higher temperatures and that less time would be needed. I'm going to stick with my old, trusted recipe and fresh lemons.

and 15-20 minutes coming down--which is what mine does--would be perfectly adequate, IMHO.

As you said, you've never had a bad batch from that method.

Just don't forget the lemon juice or you'll be in trouble.

Most tomatoes - at least the old-fashioned kind - can be successfully canned in a hot water bath because of their acidity. I don't know how acidic your salsa is by comparison, but if the recipe is from a reliable source (the USDA, for example) I'd say follow the instructions. OTOH, if you've been doing it your way without problems, and you based that on a reliable source, I'd stay stick with it. I've done tomato sauces both ways and didn't notice much difference.

How do you process for 0 minutes? Bring the pressure up to 15 psi and immediately turn it off?

I turn it off. I did process for about 5 minutes this year. I doubt it will make any difference in the taste.
As far as how acidic it is, I don't know exactly. It is about 5 cups of tomatillos and 1 cup of mixed habaneros, jalapenos and poblanos. And 1 cup of lemon juice with spices and garlic.
That sounds pretty acidic.:9