Canning Tomatoes

With the abundance of tomatoes from our garden, I canned tomatoes for the first time this summer! I have always wanted to, but thought that I needed a pressure cooker for tomatoes, and I only have a hot water bath canner. After reading through the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, however, I realized that I was mistaken. I gave it a try, and it's really easy! I was able to process one batch (10 pints) in just a couple hours, doing other things during the 40 minutes they were boiling.


I even felt the freedom to forego some of the instructions and just do what was easiest. I did not blanche the tomatoes first (as recommended in the book, for ease in peeling the skins off) because I did not take the skins off. I didn't even cook them. I just cut them up and plopped the pieces into a pan with a tiny bit of water to warm them up a little. Then I spooned them into warm jars. As with all canning, it is very important that the jars, lids, and food and/or liquid going into the jars is all warm, or the lids may not seal properly. Here are some of the jars keeping hot in a kettle of simmering water.


Before spooning the tomatoes into the jars, I added 1 T of vinegar to each jar. This increases the acidity of the tomatoes. If the acid content is too low, they will not preserve well by this hot water bath method. Foods that are naturally low in acid must have their acidity increased for the hot water bath method, or canned using a pressure cooker. For increasing acidity you can use either 1 T of vinegar or 1 T of bottled lemon juice (not fresh) per pint jar. If you are using quart jars, increase this amount to 2 T.

Then I added the tomatoes and poured some of the juicy water that the tomatoes were keeping warm in, over the tomatoes to within 1/2 inch of the top of the jar. Next I added 1/2 tsp of salt to each jar (this is optional).


I put the jars into my large canning kettle, brought it to a boil, covered the kettle and let them boil for 40 minutes.

Voila!


I was not happy with all the liquid at the bottom of the jars. Obviously I could have packed them a little tighter with tomatoes. But all in all I was pleased with how easy this was and I can't wait to add jars of our own garden-fresh tomatoes to some soup recipes this winter!