Peeling tomatoes
At the risk of sounding crazy (and why worry about that at this point), there is something deeply satisfying about peeling tomatoes. I had never done it before making tomato sauce and canned tomatoes. And, it’s just kinda fun. Messy, and fun. You should totally do it.
Cut an “x” in the bottom of the tomatoes, and then put them in a pot of boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds, or until the skins begin to crack. Immediately submerge in ice water, and the skins will slip off easily. Ta-da… like magic.
Now, onto the canning.
Herbed seasoned tomatoes
(from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)
makes 6 pints
12 cups halved cored peeled tomatoes
Mexican spice blend (2 1/2 tsp per pint):
- 5 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
Bottled lemon juice
Salt
- Prepare canner, jars and lids.
- Prepare spice blend and set aside.
- Place tomatoes in a large stainless steel sauceplan. (Don’t layer tomatoes.)
- Add water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring gently. Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes.
- Before packing jars, add 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1/4 tsp salt into hot jar. Add spice blend and pack hot tomatoes in jars within a generous 1/2 inch of top of jar. Ladle hot liquid into jar to cover tomatoes, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot liquid. Wipe rim. Center lid and screw band down until resistance is met, then fingertip-tight.
- Place jars in canner, completely covered with water. Bring to boil and process for 40 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, remove jars, cool and store.
Seasoned tomato sauce
(from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)
- Wash and sort tomatoes, removing any bruised or discolored product. Quarter 6 tomatoes and place in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to boil over high heat. Using a potato masher, crush tomatoes to release juices, stirring constantly. While maintaining and boil and stirring to prevent burning, quarter additional tomatoes, adding them to the saucepan as you work. Make sure the mixture continues to boil vigorously while you add, stir and crush the remaining tomatoes. When all tomatoes have been added, stir in onion, garlic, oregano, bay leaves, salt, black pepper, sugar and hot pepper flakes. Return to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium and boil, stirring frequently, until sauce is reduced by half and thickens slightly, about 2 hours.
- Prepare canner, lids and jars.
- Working in batches, press tomato mixture through a food mill to remove skins and seeds. Discard peel and seeds.
- Return mixture to saucepan and bring to a full rolling boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
- Before filling each jar with tomato sauce, add 1 tbsp lemon juice to the hot jar. Ladle hot sauce into prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
- Place jars in canner, fully covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 35 minutes. Remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes, remove jars, cool and store.
On the canning agenda:
Jam
if farmer’s market has yummy looking tomatoes i’m going to try this this weekend. seriously, kim, you are a canning goddess.
Yum! I heard something on the radio this morning about canning parties, and totally thought of you.
Hey dear…could your domestication skills rub off on me? I flippin’ love tomatoes!
blanching tomatoes to get the skins off is rather satisfying. =) when i’ve helped the mister can tomato sauce, we start with about 25-40 pounds of farmers’ market seconds–measuring the weight in increments of small children =)–and end up with a year’s worth of homemade sauce, and a kitchen that looks we murdered somebody. =) i’m not even that much of a tomato fan, but yum!
Looks yummy – and congrats again on another successful canning adventure!
You’re almost done with your list! I’ve never canned tomatoes… but you totally have me wanting to!! 🙂
Reading your “canning” adventures sure has me itching for a garden!
Peeling the tomatoes was my favorite part of canning. Until my apron caught on fire and the mail lady asked if I was pregnant.
I will share a new tip I learned this year. Ice packs. So much easier than ice cubes .. stay colder longer. I slip them into a ziploc bag and put them in the water.
I don’t know who thought of it — they are brilliant!!!
Yum-O! I am definitely going to have to grow tomatoes next year. Mister keeps rambling on about how homegrown tomatoes are sooo much better than supermarket. We’ll see how good they are when I’m growing them, lol!