Before tomato season comes to a close, I want to talk about my favorite way to preserve tomatoes. I typically only can them one way – (mostly) whole and peeled, in their own juices. I do them this way because I like the versatility they retain when put up in this manner. Later down the line, I can choose as to whether I want to puree them down, make a chunky sauce or just crush them with my hands and use them to top homemade pizza (Mmmm).
One thing to note is that my tomatoes aren’t perfectly whole. I do crush them a bit while cramming them into the jars, in order to generate enough liquid to totally cover the ‘maters. I find that I’m able to get three romas into a pint jar and six into a quart. On occasion, I’ll cut a tomato in to thirds or halves in order to finish off a jar and still have the proper amount of headspace.
Take your tomatoes and core them. This isn’t an absolutely necessary step, but I hate dealing with the cores when it comes time to use the tomatoes on the other end.
A cored tomato. Seriously easy.
Make two shallow cuts on the bottom of the tomato, to ease the peeling.
Drop cored and scored tomatoes into a pot of boiling water (don’t put too many in at once, or you’ll drop the water temperature drastically and it will take forever to return to a boil). Blanch tomatoes for 1-2 minutes, until the skins start to blister or loosen.
Put your blanched tomatoes into a boil of cold water, to halt cooking and to make them handle-able.
Peel tomatoes. The skins should slip off easily after the blanching and the cold water dip.
I put the tomatoes into the jars as I peel. Two standard sized romas typical fit at the bottom of the jar.
You may need to give them a little help. I use my hand when filling wide mouth jars, but when dealing with regular mouth openings, I employ the handle of a wooden spoon.
Look! A jar that’s filled with tomatoes! All the liquid you see here came from the tomatoes, as I gently smashed them to fit the jar.
Don’t forget to acidify. It’s one tablespoon of lemon juice for pints and two for quarts. I pour it on top of my filled jars, and then use a chopstick to remove the air bubbles from the jar and work the lemon juice down into its contents. You should have approximately 1/2 inch of headspace remaining after you add the lemon juice and de-bubble the jar.
After that, I wipe the rims, apply my lids (carefully simmered for 10 minutes at around 180 degrees), screw on the rings and lower the jars into the heated boiling water canner (remembering to use a rack so that the jars aren’t resting on the bottom of the pot).
Quarts of whole peeled tomatoes get processed in a boiling water canner for 45 85 minutes. Pints get processed for 40 minutes the same amount of time. Tomatoes that are packed in water are processed for 40/45 minutes.
Because my life is busy, I rarely do my tomatoes in one great, big canning day. Instead, I stretch the process out over several post-work weeknights. I’ll do four quarts at a time, because that’s how much my stock pot can hold during processing, and it keeps me from feeling overwhelmed. I find that a 25 pound box of tomatoes will make approximately 12-14 quarts of tomatoes, and so I do four jars a night for three nights in a row. It keeps me sane and keeps my pantry filled with wonderful, local tomatoes all winter long.
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Comments ( 27 )
[...] Food in Jars is an expert in home preservation. She can definitely teach you a thing or two about canning your own tomatoes and how to keep your pantry well-stocked during the tomato [...]
Pantry Raid: Canned Tomatoes « Feast: Food + Entertaining added these pithy words on Apr 23 10 at 8:39 am[...] guides from the USDA Food In Jars’ instructions Pick Your Own’s directions (note, he uses shorter times, which even my seven-year-old Ball [...]
I can can. « Sweet Pea Cooks added these pithy words on Aug 09 10 at 6:18 pm[...] to jump in on the cost and work-sharing for the tomatoes. Following the lovely Marisa’s guidelines for canning whole tomatoes, we worked from about 11am to 2:30 pm Saturday to get 8 quarts processed and the other tomatoes [...]
Canning: Bringing out the alarmist in me « nomnivorous added these pithy words on Aug 22 10 at 2:34 pmGreat step by step breakdown. I wish I had seen your technique earlier in the month when I was looking for different things to do with the tomato glut.
Thanks for the great site!
1. Eric added these pithy words on
Sep 22 09 at
11:35 am
Brilliant! And I love that your measuring spoon is a Peet’s coffee spoon.
2. Jacquelyn added these pithy words on
Sep 22 09 at
12:59 pm
I am so much less intimidated after seeing this. Nice.
3. maggie added these pithy words on
Sep 22 09 at
4:30 pm
Oh, nice. I’ll remember that next year and plant an extra tomato plant or two.
I’d given up on home-canned tomatoes ever since I tried a friend’s mom’s jars and found that they tasted too much of vinegar and weren’t as pleasant as the cans I could buy in the store.
But if you are acidifying completely with lemon juice instead of vinegar, I am tempted once more.
Thank you.
4. Livia added these pithy words on
Sep 22 09 at
5:24 pm
So all of the literature I’ve found says to process for 85 minutes with this method. Why is your processing time so short?
I just canned tomatoes a couple of weeks ago using your same technique and processed them for the full 85 minutes recommended by the Ball book and on various websites… I’d love to have had a shorter processing time!
5. Maia added these pithy words on
Sep 22 09 at
6:22 pm
Hi there, lovely tomatoes
I did 20 quarts of sauce and 9 quarts stewed which brings me to a totoal of 29 stewed and 20 sauce, I still have anothe 25 sauce to go and another 10 pints of salsa and then I am officially TOMATOED OUT!
I’ve been posting a bit about my canning and also keeping a list of my yearly canning goals on my blog….come for a visit
6. Niki added these pithy words on
Sep 22 09 at
6:38 pm
Hi! I’m new to your blog (through Ree) and I’m really enjoying your beautiful site! My family has “put up” in a variety of ways for generations, and just in the last few years have I started doing this in earnest myself. I’ve found that there is simply nothing better than opening a home-canned quart of tomatoes in February – it’s like a time-warp back to August!
I’m curious to know, though, if you ever do any pressure canning. I do some hot water bath, but mostly I do pressure. I really appreciate that I can get through a couple canners full of jars in one evening after work during the week and still have some down time.
Thanks for your great step-by-steps, and for all the great ideas!
7. Melanie added these pithy words on
Sep 22 09 at
6:51 pm
Since I grow my own tomatoes, it takes a while to get enough for me to make a big enough batch of sauce to can. As my romas ripen, I just pop them into a ziploc freezer bag. When it comes time to make sauce, I take the bags out of the freezer – as the tomatoes thaw, the skins pop right off.
Unfortuneately this year has been a bust for my tomatoes. They just aren’t ripening. I think I’ve gotten a dozen total red tomatoes – and that’s from 8 plants. Next week I’ll be desperately looking for ideas for green tomatoes!
8. daisy mae added these pithy words on
Sep 22 09 at
8:09 pm
Hi, I canned 25 lbs last night and only processed the tomatoes for 40 minutes based upon your instructions in canning class. What would you do with the tomatoes in this situation? Thanks for any thoughts you have to share.
9. Amanda added these pithy words on
Sep 23 09 at
3:30 pm
Hi, I love your site. I am new to canning, and have recently learned how important it is to have the freshest produce. Otherwise you end up with a jar of mushy gunk! So, I was wondering if with tomatoes that is quite so important. We don’t have much fridge space as we share the house with another family.
10. Eleanor added these pithy words on
Sep 23 09 at
9:34 pm
If you read the directions for the lids it says: heat lids in hot water, not boiling.
11. ET added these pithy words on
Sep 25 09 at
7:06 pm
Amanda, I’ve been canning tomatoes for several years now just as Marisa described and always used the water bath for 45 minutes for whole tomatoes (also my favorite way to can tomatoes – so simple, so versatile). I’ve never had a problem with a jar spoiling.
I do think home preservers need to be careful, but I think the Ball book and other officials get a little over the top. My mom raised me on home canned applesauce that she canned using the open kettle method. And all my cousins – 30 of them! – were raised the same way. I actually do water bath my applesauce now, but I do wonder: how could it have been safe for us back then? What changed??
heh. I guess I’m getting off subject, but I would be interested to hear what other experienced canners say. . .
12. Margo added these pithy words on
Sep 26 09 at
9:04 pm
Daisy Mae, I had the same problem!! I’ve heard you can wrap green tomatoes in newspaper and then, around Christmas, check on them. They should be completely ripe. My husband says the old-timers call these “Christmas tomatoes.” I might have to try it since I have so many green ones and don’t feel like frying them.
13. Margo added these pithy words on
Sep 26 09 at
9:06 pm
Margo: I think the thing is that the new food methods are meant to be more failsafe. The thing is that in home canning, recipes and canning methods take many precautions to make sure that spoilage does not occur. For example, jam is loaded with sugar, acidic, sterilized in boiling water and sealed. Just two or three of the above would be enough to stop most pathogens, so even if someone does something wrong or uses a flawed method, chances are they will still be okay.
Canning with paraffin has fallen out of style not because of a rash of food-borne illness, but because food scientists had found that the wax had microscopic perforations in it that could, in theory, allow germs to get in. The fact it was mainly used on jams and jellies meant that they weren’t high risk in the first place. However, everyone makes mistakes, and it’s good to defend against the worst case scenario. Thus, the modern system pretty much only advocates using mason jars.
14. Tim M added these pithy words on
Sep 28 09 at
11:27 am
Tim M, thanks, that was interesting. I would like to see more people who understand canning like that. Instead, friends of mine who want to can panic over getting ever detail straight. So maybe if people understood the biology and physics behind it, they would be more confident. I know canning intuitively from watching my mother, aunts, and grandmothers, but still, I like knowing the reasons why it’s done that way.
For example, I never bother to water bath things with vinegar in them. I just use the open kettle method (gasp).
15. Margo added these pithy words on
Sep 28 09 at
8:36 pm
I’ll have to try the lemon juice method, as the jars I’ve canned with citric acid(per BBB instructions) tasted too tart!
16. Amy L added these pithy words on
Sep 30 09 at
1:17 pm
I recently took pictures of my tomato canning planning to do an instructional blog post like this, but your pictures are so much prettier than mine!
I use citric acid instead of lemon juice or vinegar. I have not found a tart taste… I just taste the tomatoes! I prefer this over adding a lemony taste, besides which, most bottled lemon juice has added sulfites.
I hadn’t thought of scoring the tomato BEFORE blanching. That’s a great idea.
And your Romas must be huge to only get 6 into a quart! I have a lot of little Romas from the Farmer’s Market, but even my home-grown ones which are larger, aren’t big enough to get 6 into a quart!
I’ve been ripening green tomatoes indoors this year, I just have them sitting out in a big bowl, and they’re ripening beautifully. I also have a couple whole plants hung upside down in a closet, also ripening beautifully. It almost doesn’t seem to matter what I do with them, they ripen beautifully heh
17. Heather D added these pithy words on
Oct 05 09 at
9:12 am
I’m bummed. It must be cold in here or I need to work faster next time. I peeled and packed six pints of red and yellow tomatoes from my garden. As soon as I put them in the canner, two jars broke. Wah! They must have cooled down quite a lot and the boiling water was just too much. So much work, literally down the drain.
I just cleaned the mess up and refilled the canner. I put the four remaining jars in to heat up with the water. Then, another 85 minutes plus extra for altitude. This is going to be awhile…
Just wanted to share to vent
and to warn others not to let the tomatoes cool too much.
18. Kimberly added these pithy words on
Oct 07 09 at
2:23 pm
I have always processed my tomatoes in boiling water for 40 minutes (pint jars). I have never had a problem. I purused around the internet for a few minutes, and many sites recommend the 40 minute time as well.
Gorgeous blog! Thanks for the inspiration.
19. Jeanette added these pithy words on
Oct 09 09 at
1:03 pm
I am so glad I canned as many tomatoes as I did. I am starting to use my canned tomatoes and can’t believe the incredible fresh-tomato smell when I open up a jar. We will be planting more tomatoes next year just for more canning tomatoes.
20. sue added these pithy words on
Dec 25 09 at
3:47 pm
I know this is late for a comment…. I bookmarked this last year and just tried my first batch of canned tomatoes following this method. After processing for the full 85 minutes, the tomatoes seem to have separated from the juices; the bottom 2 inches or so of each jar look like water and the tomatoes have floated to the top. Is this normal? Perhaps you have some suggestions on how to prevent this separation from happening?
22. leslie added these pithy words on
Jul 26 10 at
12:36 am
I’m puzzled by the time difference, as well–I am doing halved tomatoes but my second round over-blanched as I was worrying about something else; unlike my first batch, these were softer and oozed out juice as I crammed them in the jar. I still topped them with hot water and used my butter knife to remove air bubbles and move the water through. Does that make these juice-packed and in need of an 85 minute bath? Or are they still water-packed and get 40? Or do I just split the difference? Aye.
As for your question, Leslie, the pick your own website says this:
What about the reverse: liquid at the bottom and solids at the top? That indicates too much preheating (more than 5 minutes). Pectin breaks down when it is overheated; then separation results. If separation occurs, just shake the jar before opening or decant the water off.
References: Ohio State University
Mine did the same thing. I’m not going to sweat it!
23. Jen added these pithy words on
Aug 04 10 at
11:18 am
I am new at canning. This is the best instructions I have found on the internet. It is a shame there was no printer friendly app.
26. Jackie added these pithy words on
Aug 27 10 at
7:14 pm
I have a question I hope you can answer, I am new at canning, this being my first year. I have made 2 batches of salsa, my first one turned out great (made 2-weeks ago), I though my second one did as well (made 1 week ago) until I opend a jar last night and it did not spell right. When looking at the salsa i noticed that it is seperating, I look at all the other jars form that bactch and most of them seem to be doing the same thing. I did not do much different between the batches (I added more peppers and some cherry tomoates for extra flavor). Did this happen because I did not get all the air out or were the jars not sealed correctly? I would like to make a new batch this weekend but now I’m worried I do not want to waist that amount of food again.
27. Bobbie added these pithy words on
Sep 02 10 at
12:03 pm
