Canning advice for tomatoes please

[JennsPeeps]

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can3_tomato.html

I've already canned ~35 lbs of quartered tomatoes. Peeling & quartering them was the most efficient. I didn't bother to see them this year. Crushed is easy, too. I decided to do plain tomatoes first and sauce later if I have time (getting married next month). I can always make sauce with the canned tomatoes, right?

You may can tomatoes in a plain canner but I've heard that pressure canning is much faster. Let us know your results!

To blanch them efficiently, I put on a massive stock pot of boiling water. I filled my sink with ice water. I threw 6 tomatoes at a time into the boiling water and put on the timer for 2 mins. That many large tomatoes dropped the water temp enough that it took 1 min to come back to a boil. During the 2 mins I peeled the previosu batch's 6 tomatoes. It worked perfectly and was really efficient. By the time all tomatoes had been blanched, all the tomatoes were also peeled!

 

[BCMominMD]

Thank you so much for all the great advice reference sites and ideas for efficient ways to do things. THIS is the weekend.
I will let you know how it turns out!

 

[MsMelvin]

We are excited for you....good luck!

 

[mountaintopchicken]

A small tip: don't throw away those seeds and skins, and don't give them to the chickens. Put them in a food dehydrator, and dehydrate them till they crackle with dryness. Then put them in a blender and blend them to a powder.

I did this once thinking I was making a nice supplement to the chicken's winter feed, but then I tasted the powder. I was blown away by the intense tomato flavor! It's so good. You can add it to any recipe you need that tomato flavor in.

 

[JennsPeeps]

Quote:
Great suggestion! I hate throwing anything away.

 

[chickon baby]

Not sure if this post is to late but I have been canning salsa like crazy!! We love it.I also make it for gifts,nothing better than fresh homemade salsa in the winter.I make "salsa baskets for Christmas" I have heard so many people having trouble with tomatoe plants this year and my neighbor said there was a recall or something with the "bonnie veggie plants" I start all my garden from seeds on New years day and had over 100 tomatoe plants..Just made my 3rd batch of salsa and got another 18 qts..A secret for the iced water..I freeze plastic cups(the you get soda's in at the gas station) with water and fill my sink w/cold water,put a few cups in at a time,it keeps the water really cold.I agree with the other person who said you have to make the "acid levels" right.That why alot of canning recipes call for vinegar or lemon juice,that is a MUST!!This salsa recipe is the best,I make some chunky and some I puree in the food processor.. If you make sauce I found that when you open the jar to serve it,just add arrow root n it will thicken very nicely...You CANT add the arrow root before you can it though..Have fun,canning is great. P.S..I too have the ball canning book,it is great..Anyone who wants to start canning,keep eyes on garage sales and end of season stuff for next year.Estate sales n autions are great you can usually find all the stuff there too

 

[BCMominMD]

Just wanted to let you all know that my first pressure canning experience was a success. I used bits and pieces of everyone's advice. I did pints of tomatoe halves in their own juice. The blanching 6 at a time worked great. The hardest part was getting comfortable with that darn pressure canner. I think I had too much water in it AND I didn't realize that I had to start lowering the temp before the pressure got to 11 lbs. Duh! So they processed more at 13-14 lbs. But they seem fine.
Minus the worry now that I know how the canner works - this should be fun!
Thank you all for your support.
The chickens enjoyed the peels too