# Easiest way to can tomatoes?



## clothAnnie (May 6, 2011)

Canning newbie here. Only attempts so far have been strawberry jam and applesauce. Both went well but I did only small amounts of each. I have a big pot for BWB. No pressure canner but wonder if I could borrow one. 

We use lots of store bought canned tomatoes - crushed and "sauce" for chili and pasta sauce, mainly. So I tried to grow a bunch and lots are coming! Mostly green fruits at the moment but I want to prep for a (hopeful!) glut of red ones. I grew break o'day, granny cantrell's German, homestead, Rutgers, and thessoloniki. All these should be ok for canning, right?

My thought was to freeze (as I've read here makes the skins come off easily) then food mill for the seeds. But that'd give me only sauce, I guess. If I'm gonna food mill them anyway, should I skip the freezing step? Aaah! Then they'd be raw pack, right? I fear seed would cause undesired bitterness so if I want crushed, I'll have to chop, then get the seeds out. I don't have the blue ball book; will look online for raw vs hot pack (I've the applesauce both ways and much preferred the reduced water / higher sugar % of the hot pack as I really let them cook down). 

I just feel like I'm so confused/don't know where to start and want a product my family will be happy with. Thanks for any pointers!


----------



## clothAnnie (May 6, 2011)

I have lots of store bought line juice; this'd be ok instead of lemon? I wish I felt ok skipping as I've read some on here do, but being such a novice I'm scared enough of wasting food let alone having pathogen growth! I normally live on the edge lol drinking raw milk etc eating raw egg in things but keep reading about tomatoes having lower acid than in years past etc. Plus maybe I'd feel differently if I were or sure canning, but that's prob not an option.


----------



## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I say yes you could use lime juice. Or you could buy citric acid.
But I do need to say- I have been canning sinse I had to stand on a chair to help my mother. I do not put any extra acid in my tomatoes. So it's up to you,maybe you could look up the acidity of Lime and compare to lemon to make yourself feel better.


----------



## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

I can a lot of tomato sauce, as we use a lot of it. The way I do it, I use one of those juicers. I think its called Jack LeLanes power juicer.
I cut the tomatoes into pieces, run them through the juicer. I then take the spent pulp, and run it back through. Yeah, the machine isn't that efficient.
Anyway, collect all the juice and boil it down to the consistency I like, then can it. Depending on the variety of tomatoes being used, I will, at times, add a little lemon juice to each jar.
I have never peeled a tomato.


----------



## Peasant (May 18, 2013)

The fastest, easiest way to can a bunch of tomatoes is raw packing tomatoes in water. Cut out stems, stuff into quart jars, cover with hot water, and pressure can them for 10 mins at 10lbs. Blue Book says to use lemon juice, but I think last time I did crushed tomatoes I used vinegar since I had a few gallons on hand. Better safe than sorry.

I don't ever take seeds out or peel, even when I'm making sauce. Takes too long and seems unnecessary to me.


----------



## TerriLynn (Oct 10, 2009)

I have used a spoonful of vinegar to acidify tomatoes and it doesn't affect the taste. I have also used lime juice and they were fine.

I cook my tomatoes then run them through a food mill. If I have a lot of tomatoes to do what I do is cook them down in my crock-pots and electric turkey roaster over night. I also add garlic, onion, celery, and red and green peppers. I put these on to cook right before I go to bed, and then when I get up in the morning they are ready to go in the food mill.

Once all the tomatoes and veggies have been strained through the food mill I put them into my electric turkey roaster and turn the heat up as high as it will go, and leave off the lid. In about 6 hours your liquid will reduce by half, and you don't have to baby sit it constantly. Just stir every couple of hours until the end when it gets thick, then stir about every half hour. Add your salt after its been reduced as much as you want it.

To make crushed tomatoes, what I do is take uncooked tomatoes and give them a dunk in boiling water until the skins split, remove them, pull the skin off, squeeze them open with your hand then throw them in a colander for about 15-20 min. Once they've had a chance to drain, use your hands to remove the clear jelly/seedy part of each tomato and use a knife to give it a rough chop, fill a quart jar about 1/3 to 1/2 with these tomatoes, then fill the jar the rest of the way with the tomato sauce you just made. You can add your lemon/lime juice or vinegar at this point. Then process.

It sounds a lot more complicated that it really is, once you get going and find your stride it goes pretty fast actually.


----------



## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

We can all our tomatoes peeled, quartered and with tomato juice. Boil water, dip tomato in, peel, quarter, fill jars as we go and then add hot tomato juice. Then pressure can. This is used to make anything else we want later. We do also can tomato juice....James


----------



## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

I blanch the tomatoes I want to can whole or quartered . the skins slip right off then I run the others through the victor strainer and put this in the jar instead of water to cover a talespoon of lemon juice then hot water bath can .


----------



## CJ (May 10, 2002)

That's exactly how I do it as well. I have a Champion juicer, and I run my tomatoes, along with garlic, onions, and fresh herbs through the juicer all together, cook it down and can it. FABULOUS!



Dixie Bee Acres said:


> I can a lot of tomato sauce, as we use a lot of it. The way I do it, I use one of those juicers. I think its called Jack LeLanes power juicer.
> I cut the tomatoes into pieces, run them through the juicer. I then take the spent pulp, and run it back through. Yeah, the machine isn't that efficient.
> Anyway, collect all the juice and boil it down to the consistency I like, then can it. Depending on the variety of tomatoes being used, I will, at times, add a little lemon juice to each jar.
> I have never peeled a tomato.


----------



## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Cj, great minds think alike.

Also, when boiling it down, I do it outside in an enamel coated pot on the turkey fryer.
I typically boil down to the point 1 gallon of juice makes just under 1 quart of sauce.


----------



## CJ (May 10, 2002)

Yes! Cooking it down like that makes the most INCREDIBLE sauce, it just bursts with flavor.


----------



## mzgarden (Mar 16, 2012)

I'll add. I pick, wash, core and trim (iffy spots, etc) and freeze. Then I thaw, drain off the water and slip the skins off to use for making broths, etc. I cook the tomatoes down overnight in very very low oven until super thick. Depending on what I'm canning, mash with a potato masher, use a stick blender for smoothness, etc. and water bath can. I don't find the seeds have added bitterness, but maybe that's just our taste buds.


----------



## mzgarden (Mar 16, 2012)

As for buying a Ball Blue Book - good idea, but you can get to the recipes online: http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes
Down the left side you can choose on Main Ingredients, you can choose Easy, Medium, Advanced recipes, Categories like desserts, soups & sauces, etc. and then the last option is preserving method like water bath, pressure can, auto canner, etc.

until you get your book, you can look there.


----------



## puddlejumper007 (Jan 12, 2008)

mzgarden, that is a realy good site you posted...thanks


----------



## Vosey (Dec 8, 2012)

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE 3 Home Can.pdf

If you want to "follow the rules" for tomatoes here they are. As you can see it's fairly labor intensive and many of us don't quite follow the rules....


----------



## clothAnnie (May 6, 2011)

Wow y'all have given me some really fantastic tips! I really appreciate all of you taking time to share your experiences and approaches. I seriously am thankful for this forum!!


----------



## Werforpsu (Aug 8, 2013)

I also cook my tomatoes down in the oven. once I have my sauce/juice pureed, I pour it into my largest roasting pan and cook it down to a thick tomato sauce.
You can use clear jel (not cornstarch) or store bought cans of tomato paste to help it thicken if you desire.
my favorite is to can pints of plain tomato sauce and half pints (jelly jars) of pizza sauce.

for future years, I highly recommend roma tomatoes for canning especially if you want something other then sauce.
I have always BWB canned my tomatoes because until this year I didn't have a pressure canner!
I blanch them, core them and slip their skins, leaving them whole. once I get a huge bowl full, I hot pack them following the blue ball canning for tomatoes packed in water. basically, you boil them in water for a few minutes, put into the hot jars, adding liquid until filled to recommended headspace, and put in a BWB for the specified times. I believe I add both lemon juice and salt as per the books recommendation.
I have been extremely happy with the whole romas. as firm as they are at the start they soften wonderfully when canned and if added to chili or stew, they break apart perfectly. they can be drained and diced later to use instead of a store bought can or you can make a "fresh" tomato sauce with them.
I plant over 30 tomato plants and about 20 of them are romas.


----------



## Jeepgirl86 (May 18, 2012)

I'll throw in my two cents too...Last year I had a ton of tomatoes from my own garden and then the MIL kept sending 5 gallon buckets over, so I had plenty and I got tired of peeling so I just cored, chopped into quarters, threw into the stockpot and cooked them down a bit then took the stick blender and went at it. I guess it was more of a puree than sauce as I didn't cook it down. I left seeds in and skins on and had no problem with bitterness, just the odd bit of curled skin here and there. We use a lot of tomato product (diced, sauced or pureed) so I just made the decision to dice and puree them this year as sauce is more labor intensive. I also started to pressure can all of it so I leave out the extra acid. We've run the pH meter on our homegrown 'maters and they have a high enough acid content that I don't worry about them. If I was using store bought or farmer's market bought with questionable harvest date then I might add the acid.


----------

