It’s the middle of the summer and your tomato garden is producing a surplus of tomatoes. You’ve made every sauce and salsa recipe the internet has to offer. You’ve supplied your friends and family with so many tomatoes, they refuse to take any more. You’ve cooked, dried, and frozen batch after batch and yet they still keep coming. What now? Before your surplus is claimed by rot, let’s preserve some. Let’s can! It’s not as intimidating as it may seem

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What your gonna need:

Tomatoes, duh

This year I canned Romas and Cherokee Purples.

I find Romas work best for canning because they are easier to skin and meatier than other varieties. However, any variety will work. Work with what ya got.

Choose your best tomatoes. No bruising, holes, rot, or anything like that. Good beautiful healthy tomatoes only.

Jars

How many jars will depend on how many tomatoes you have. I usually go through a 12-pack of Quart Jars.

Quart jars work the best for canning tomatoes. I prefer the wide-mouth jars because I can fit whole tomatoes in the jars. Regular-mouth jars will work too, you just might have to slice the tomatoes up to get them to fit.

Rings & Lids

Canning Kit: 

Includes Jar grabber, lid lifter, jar funnel, and headspace tool. This isn’t necessary, but it sure does make things a lot easier!

Canning Salt

Lemon Juice

Large Blanching pot

Smaller pot

Ice bath

Paring knife

Water bath canner or Pressure Canner

(Acidic foods can be water bathed. Non-acidic foods HAVE to be pressure canned for proper storage)

Canning Rack

Large Spoon

Dish towels

Preparation

1. Fill your water-bath canner with water and bring to a hot simmer

Fill your blanching pot with water and bring to a boil

Fill your smaller pot with water. Place lids and rings in a pot and bring to almost a boil. Don’t boil lids.

– I recently read that new canning lids don’t require a hot water bath for sealing. They can be used straight from the box and have the same effect when canned. That’s great, but too many old timers have been using the water method for years, so you do what you like. I will just heat my lids.

Prepare your ice bath. This stops the cooking process once tomatoes are blanched. Tip: Frozen water bottles are good ice bath additions. They are easier to handle and will not melt as fast.)

Wash jars with soap and HOT water.

Place cleaned jars on canning rack and place jars in water bath canner until ready to fill.

Processing

Wash your tomatoes.

Remove cores and cut away any green areas.

Take your knife and score a shallow X on the bottom of each tomato. This will help in the peeling process. Roma tomatoes are smaller so you don’t need to score the bottom. Just slice off the tops.

Dip tomatoes in boiling water for 30-60 seconds. You should start to see the skins peel away from the X cut.

To each quart jar add; 2 tbsp of lemon juice & 1 tsp of canning salt. This keeps bacteria from growing and makes your tomatoes shelf-stable.

Use a funnel and pack/mash tomatoes into jars until the space between the tomatoes fills with liquid.

Take your headspace tool and run around the edges of each jar, releasing all the air bubbles that formed. Leave 1/2” headspace at the top.

Fill with blanching water if you need more liquid.

Wipe your jar rims with a paper towel or damp cloth before placing lids. Food particles left on the rim can interfere with the seal.

Place lids and rings on each jar and finger tighten. Don’t press down on your lids.

Load your canning rack and carefully lower it into the water bath canner. Makes sure water covers jars at least 2”

Process quarts for 45 minutes/Pints for 35 minutes. Adjusting for altitude.

Remove jars and let cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. You should hear the successful “pop” of the lids sealing.

After 24 hours, press down on the middle of each lid. It shouldn’t flex. If it does, then the jar did not seal. Place in refrigerator and eat first. If you there is no give, then your jar is canned

Be smart here. If you open a can of tomatoes and it has mold growing in it or they smell rank, just throw them out. Don’t be that guy. It didn’t seal properly and we don’t need anyone getting food poisoning because they thought the mold was alright to eat. Don’t make yourself sick just because you didn’t want to waste any.