Preserving Tomatoes

 

August is the peak of tomato season. Those of your lucky enough to have gardens are probably rolling in the round, red globes, but some of us aren't as wealthy in the produce department. Fortunately, Kathy and I were able to finagle our way into some "seconds" at the Farmer's Market. "Seconds" is the term used for any fruit or vegetable deemed to be less attractive, and, consequentially, less expensive, but still perfectly good. We each scored over 10 pounds of tomatoes for $10.00.

The only other thing we needed for canning tomatoes was our canning supplies, lemon juice and optional salt. That's it. It was a really simple process and really economical. Far simpler than my original plan of canning actual tomato sauce. That was a lot more work and a lot more supplies {and a lot more expensive}. All told, the time we spent was mostly waiting for things to boil or process. If we do it again, we'll be sure to have a puzzle around to occupy our time.

After gathering the supplies and starting to sterilize the jars, the first step was to bring a pot of water to boil and set up a bowl full of ice water. Douse the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 - 45 seconds and then put them into the ice water. This will make the skins of the tomatoes easy to remove. Next, core and quarter your newly naked tomatoes. 

For 20 pounds of tomatoes, you're going to need a lot of bowls to hold all of your cut-up tomatoes. Start cooking your tomatoes by crushing up enough tomatoes to equal two cups and bring that to a boil in your pan. The recipe we used is from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It says to slowly add tomatoes to the pot until all tomatoes were added. Well, having 20 pounds of tomatoes meant we did this in two batches. It also said you didn't have to crush the tomatoes you were adding because the heat would break them down, but some of our tomatoes were less ripe than others, so we crushed them anyway.

After the whole pot of tomatoes has boiled for 5 minutes, you can start ladling it into jars. It's recommended that you take the jars out of sterilization and fill them one at a time, minimizing the danger of contamination. To the hot jar, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice for each pint of tomatoes. You can also add 1/2 teaspoon salt if you wish. Unsurprisingly, I opted for salt in mine. Ladle in your tomatoes and wipe the rim of the jar. Then cover with a clean and sterilized lid. Process pint jars for 35 minutes. We also did quarts which should be processed for 45 minutes, take 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of salt. Our 20 pounds of tomatoes yielded 12 pints and 3 quarts of crushed tomatoes with about a quart left over we didn't have jar for. Kathy put that in a plastic container and put it in the freezer.

All told, it was a super easy project and, provided we did everything right, this will be a great way to get the feeling of fresh tomatoes in the upcoming Chicago winter.

P.S. Grandma Noel is off to Baltimore for some higher education. We will miss her greatly and are looking forward to her reports from afar. We think we can convince her to try to make her own beer.

Comments

[kimberly]

my dad used to plant about 80 tomato plants in his garden, so my mother would spend days canning them (crushed tomatoes & salsa, mainly)...now that i am (ahem) more domestic, i wish i had spent some time in the kitchen with her because canning scares me! you grannies make it look so easy :)

[Christine Hand]

Dear Donovan,

I have been canning my own jams, jellies, and applesauce for a few years now, but canning tomatoes (or anything else that needs blanching) has always intimidated me. You lovely grannies have inspired me to give it a try!

Thanks for the post,

Christine

[noel]

dov + kath:
wish i was there! the sauce looks fantastic!

g. noel

[Malcolm Adkins]

How long will they keep. Most of the recipes I have say they will only keep for about 4weeks. Mal

[Damien Rice]

This looks nice and fantastic. Do they normally last for a month?