Canning tomatoes

Last weekend I finally canned my first few quarts of tomatoes. They were slow to put on fruit and slow to ripen this year for whatever reason. I know I’m not the only person experiencing this. But in September and early October I always find myself standing at the stove with lots of steam…I’ve tried many things over my 25 years, including making salsa of various sorts, green tomato enchilada sauce, red enchilada sauce, pickled green tomatoes, bloody Mary mix, crushed tomatoes, whole tomatoes, tomato soup, green tomato chutney, and Indian-spiced tomato soup.

Many of these trials were temporary, but one has stood the test of time and is my only remaining canning choice: Crushed Tomatoes. I found this recipe in the America’s Test Kitchen Foolproof Preserving cookbook and it is now our favorite. The advantages are that it’s easy to fit crushed tomatoes through the neck of the jar, you can make a huge batch in an afternoon, and they work well in many different recipes.

Here’s a photographic journey of my process this year:

This year I realized that if I heat the cold lemon juice a bit before putting it in the hot jars it will prevent the hot jars from cracking and breaking! This was a breakthrough.

This process is so easy: Skin the tomatoes by dunking in boiling water and then ice water. The skin will easily pull away from the fruit. Then cut each tomato in 2″ chunks and put a layer into your cooking pot. Simmer over medium high heat till they are cooked down a bit and crush with a potato masher. Keep adding tomatoes till they are all in the pot and the liquid has reduced and the entire thing is thickened a bit. Keep the tomatoes barely simmering. Then we prepare the jars by heating in the boiling water for a few minutes, then allow them to dry and cool a bit. Then each jar gets a 1/2 tsp salt and 3T lemon juice to preserve the tomatoes and prevent overgrowth of bacteria. Then each jar gets filled with the crushed tomatoes leaving a 1/2 inch gap at the top. Wipe off the edge of the glass, top with a lid and gently screw on a ring to hold the lid in place. Lower the jars, one by one, into the boiling water. Raise the level of the water in the pot to be 1″ above the tops of the jars. Simmer the jars for about an hour. Then remove and allow to cool till the lids all seal. Remove the jar rings. When completely cool mark the contents and date on the lid. Store in a cool dry place.

My next project: make green tomato chutney around October 15th when we have brought in the last of the green tomatoes and given up on allowing them all to ripen on the counter….