Is it safe? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Is it recommended? Absolutely not.
Do I do it? Don't tell, but I make Brad's Garlic Dill Pickles which use the sterilized jars/boiling brine aka open kettle method.
Would I tell you it's OK? Nope. It's really a matter of how much risk you, personally, are willing to take. BTW, those pickles are just for my own personal consumption...what I give as gifts is made with tested, approved recipes.

Since it is green tomatoes that you are doing why not use the approved Pickled Green Tomato recipe? Linked it below. It is for sweets but you can also make them as dills if you prefer.

Open kettle canning has been listed as an unsafe practice for many years as there is simply to much of a chance for contamination and the temps aren't high enough to kill any possible contaminants. Some processing is required to insure that all the air is removed from the jars and that you get a proper seal.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP-Pickled Green Tomatoes

Nope, not safe, as well as being less energy efficient. Open canners are never as hot as a covered one even if teh water is boiling. 50% vinegar is unsafe as well. It should be more than about 70- 75% vinegar to be safe.
When I pickle my small delicate, thin skinned pepperoncini, they don't see any heat, but the vinegar is full strength 5%, and I use a vacuum method similar to commercial canning of these. If I were to BWB or use any heat in the canning process, they would be jars of mush.

YOu could use your recipe ... and when the jars cool, keep 'em in the refrigerator.
kay

Thanks for the replies.

I use the open kettle method all the time, recipe handed down from my grandma, 3 quarts water, 1 quart pickling vinegar, 1 cup pickling salt , 1/2 sugar, simmer until clear, stuff jars with dill, garlic, cukes, fill brine to the top, hot water bath lids(have them simmering on your stove ) they will seal within hours , store in cool place , they are delicious and crisp, I don’t cut any ends off the cukes either !

Heidi, I had a hand me down recipe that made great pickles that I used for years too. It was from sometime in the '40's', handed down to my sister.
She made them every year for my DH. When her kids were grown and she only canned a little, I began making them.

But those recipes originated when vinegar was stronger than the current 5.%. Open kettle canning has been discouraged for a number of years now. I no longer make the pickles. Miss them, but I don't make them and wouldn't serve them. Problem with lots of Grandma's recipes is that we don't have quite the same ingredients now as they did back then. Safety guidelines have changed and often for good reason.

My whole family and friends use the

recipe ! Wouldn’t use any either recipe!

each to his own .

As was said further up in this thread, everyone chooses the level of risk they are willing to take. I also do not open kettle can anything, including pickles, but when my father was alive that's how he did his pickles and tomatoes. And no, it wasn't the pickles that killed him, LOL. I did can some dill pickles for him and I just got too many bad seals to make me happy, I was losing too much "product".

I did tell him that it just wasn't a safe method, and he gave me the "we've always done it that way" reply. I told him that I didn't have a car seat when I was small, but my kids did, and that I remember riding all the way to Canada in the back of a pickup truck with a topper to visit Great Grandma, but I wouldn't let my kids do that either. Just because it's been done that way forever doesn't make it the best or safest method.

I like to make decisions based on data and science, and I want ALL the information available, then I can make my own decision and know that it was a fully informed decision, not based on tradition or sentiment. Then I can decide the level of risk I'm comfortable with. Now that I've done that, I do not open kettle can pickles, or anything else.

Guidelines are just that, guidelines. Follow them or not, your choice, but be sure you are informed as to any hazards, both possible health hazards and possible loss of product.

Annie