# Lime juice instead of lemon?



## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

I bought some limes, a lot of limes, and juiced them for a recipe and have about a pint of juice left over. Can I use this in place of lemon juice when canning tomatoes? I want to use it up and ran out of lemon juice before I ran out of tomatoes.


----------



## Prickle (May 9, 2009)

Officially you're supposed to use commercial lemon or lime juice in canning as it has a uniform acidity level.

The acidity of the fresh stuff varies and may or may not be strong enough.

But you can use lemon and lime juice interchangeably.


----------



## judylou (Jun 19, 2009)

Prickle's correct. The canning instructions specify bottled lemon juice, not fresh, because the pH of fresh lemons isn't acidic enough. The pH of bottled lemon (and lime) juice is boosted by 20% during processing and stabilized so it holds. 

Freeze your lime juice and save it for other uses.


----------



## Prickle (May 9, 2009)

Make some yummy lime curd.


----------

