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Canning advice for tomatoes please

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BCMominMD

BCMominMD

Songster
10 Years
Mar 12, 2009
171
0
119
Southern Md
So - I have a larger garden this year and many more tomatoes - romas & brandywines mostly.
I just bought a pressure canner.
I want to know what is the most useful form to can these tomatoes in. Whole, crushed, sauce etc.
Its just my husband and I. We don't eat pizza, spaghetti much but I do make lots of soups and stews in the winter. So I'm leaning away from sauce.
I would appreciate any experience you have had with preserving tomatoes. I have so much to learn.
Thanks!!!
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Good for you having a successful garden, up here we've had too much rain and tomatoes are rotting on the vine, green. No tomato crop in the Northeastern part of the country.

Anyhow, I've found that canning the tomatoes crushed works for me. I use them for Chili, stews, pizza and what not.

Do yourself a big favor and buy the canners bible, the BALL BLUE BOOK guide to home canning, freezing and dehydration. They are celebrating 125 years of helping america do home preserves!

You will find everything you need to know about preserving your harvest. I think you will find that you bought yourself a little gold mine with that pressure cooker as you will be able to can low acid foods as well (like meats in stews). I only have a regular canner and do my tomatos the old fashioned way:)

If you like I will scan a tomato canning recipe and post it...better yet, do a search on the company and find their home page. You won't be dissapointed! I'm sure many of the nice folks here have this book in their homes
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Good luck, your in for a wonderful learning experience! Sally
 
My family has always canned tomatoes every year. Usually whole or crushed, or combined with other veggies into something my grandparents always called "soup mix"

Plain tomatoes were cleaned, scalded, peeled, and large ones cut into quarters or halves and pushed into the jars. A half teaspoon of salt and another of sugar on top before jars were sealed.

Soup mix was crushed tomato, cut corn, butter beans/green beans, okra pieces. Usually had to do with smaller harvests of each veggie so combined to make a useful soup starter. We always LOVED this mixture in the winter.
 
I am new to canning myself. Last year was my first year. I had a very large crop of tomatoes so I did alot of stewed tomatoes and salsa. I got the recipes online from ball . Everyone was disapointed this year when our tomato crop failed. I did manage to can some pasta sauce but that was all. Good luck and enjoy.
 
Thanks all. Balls Complete Book of Canning (or something like that) was ordered on line and due to arrive any second. I can't wait!
 
I know your varieties are not cherry tomatoes, but I'll post this warning from an Ohio State site on not canning cherry tomatoes whole so others can see it. I checked the USDA site and they do not mention it, but I believe they recommend adding acid to tomatoes, which changes the situation. That brings up a good point. Don't mix recipes and read them very carefully.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=26219

I agree with MSMelvin that you need a current canning book, whether pressure or water bath canning. I do not use Ball's Blue Book, but I am sure it is excellent. You can also get good ones from the library. Our mother's (or Grandmother's, for you young people) recipes may not follow the current guidelines on processing methods or times. There have been advances in the processes that make them safer. For example, hot water bath canning of tomatoes without adding acid is not recommeded. There are several low acid tomatoes out there that do not have enough acid content to make water bath canning safe unless you really know your tomatoes. And follow the recipes carefully. Adding extra onions, peppers, whatever to the mix can change the processing times.

I usually pressure can sauce so I can't help you much with recipes, but for your situation I'd suggest you either do as Quillgirl suggests and do some type of soup mix or go with crushed tomatoes.

I don't always have enough tomatoes to make canning real efficient, so I take perfect tomatoes, wash them, then freeze them whole. A gallon bag is about 3-1/2 pounds. When I have enough to make a batch, I thaw them in water, handling them very gently. Once they are thawed, the skin comes right off. They are very soft and mushy, but if you handle them gently and take the skin off over a bowl, you don't lose any significant amount of juice. They are soft and mushy and it is impossible to trim out any bad spots. That's why I only freeze the perfect ones. It is also difficult to remove the core. Since I run them through a food mill to remove the seeds (my wife's diverticuli (sp?) do not like tomato seeds), the core is not a real problem for me.

If you do a google search with key words "usda canning tomatoes" you can find a long document with many recipes and recommendations, including "soup mix" type recipes. Read their charts with care and remember, quarts take longer to process than pints. On at least one of their charts, this could be read the other way. I think the canning guides like Ball's are set up better, but this is an online option.
 
GET The BALL CANNING BOOK for sure. I have used that book for 50 years, I grew up with canning tomatoes. It was a family thing, all the aunts, parents, grandparents ( Women ) and all old enough kids. first job was washing jars out side in big tubs set up on tables, second job was taking the left over peels to the chickens and the mulch pile. Anyhow you can cook it down skin and all with or with out added things, like onions, bell pepper chilies. what ever you want, your own herbs, Like a sprig of fresh Dill, Basil or Oregano. pour into a jar and pressure or cold pack. you can make them look real pretty in the jar. When using whole or half face them out add sliced bell peppers down around the tomatoes facing out, then between the strips, poke a garlic clove in there. Not only pretty but tastes good. I would feel so much pride in my canning, I would just stand and look at the jars.
I still do that only on a small scale. I get my tomatoes from TonopahRob's Farm, 355th ave and Buckeye, AZ. All organic produce, and lot's of vendors,with all organic stuff. If you pressure cook cherry tomatoes they will blow up. Not good for pressure cooker. You can freeze them with no prep at all just raw. Whole or 1/2, leave skin on. Seal-a-meal works great. When I want to use them I just cook them down in stock pot and go from there as too what I want to make. Lot of options.
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. They Taste SOOOO! good.
 
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I don't do the canning - DH does, but from helping and watching him, the diced type like you buy in the store sounds like your best bet IMHO. To make tomato sauce, it takes A LOT of tomatoes and you get a small return for all of the work. Plus, if you do a lot of soups and stews this type of canned tomato will be perfect for you! Good luck and have fun!
 
we can 1/4 cut tomatoes and always add a little lemon juice to the jar for safety.. they have bred tomatoes to carry less acid than they used too.. you can't taste the lemon at all and it works good.. canned 72 pints yesterday
 
If you have a turkey fryer I used the basket to scauld my tomatoes it saved a ton of time heating the water up for every batch I was peeling. You can also just do a starter mix. I blend up the tomatoes peel and all and dump in a large pot the size of a canner. Add onions, peppers, celery whatever you like and can like you would tomatoes. I use it for everyting from hotdishes to sloppy joes. LOVE my canned tomatoes. I have been canning for 19 years on my own and before that with my mom at home. I use the cold water bath processing technique and I have never had a jar go bad. I have a pressure canner and I have never used it for canning.
 

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