How to Can Tomatoes

It’s officially September! For many gardeners, this time of year is marked not only by brisk mornings, dewy toes and the bittersweet appearance of one’s breath hanging in the air, but the preservation of the harvest.

I’ve discovered the great joy that comes from canning the fruits of my gardening labour. I’m hooked. I need more jars!

So far this season I have made “Zany Zucchini Pickles”, “Zesty Zucchini Relish”, “Red Hot Sauce”, Mexican- and Italian-style tomatoes, “Garden Vegetable Salsa” and most recently “Dill Sandwich Slices”. So far I have kept very much to just one book (seen in the left sidebar), with very good success.

In my garden the most bountiful crop, as you will not be surprised to read, has been by far the tomatoes. As the first frost date approaches I will be determined to preserve every last ripe (and green) tomato in the yard so we can enjoy their rich flavour throughout the fall, winter and early spring. The easiest way to do this is to pack them, uncooked, in jars. If you have the Bernardin book that I recommend, the instructions for doing this are entitled “Raw-Packed Tomatoes with No Added Liquid”. I’ll assume you have some basic knowledge of canning. If not, I recommend picking up this book. It contains really great, detailed instructions for canning all kinds of fruits and vegetables, and a lot of recipes, too. I started using it last season and it’s looking pretty weathered already.

Here’s my basic canning set-up. On the back left burner is the huge pot I use as a boiling-water canner. I bought it a few years ago at No Frills for ten bucks. It holds five 1 liter jars or 7 pint jars. Inside is a canning rack that sits on the bottom of the pot. On the back right burner are simmering lids. The front left burner is for boiling water to peel the tomatoes, and the front right burner holds a pot for recipes like salsa that require cooking the tomatoes first. For the raw-packed tomatoes, you won’t need this last pot.

There are more photos after the jump. Hope you’ve got a high speed connection!

Place a bowl of cold water next to the stove.

After preparing your jars and lids, you will need to peel your tomatoes. You need approximately three pounds of raw tomatoes for each 1 liter jar, or a half pound if you’re using pint jars (500 mL).

Before peeling, though, I like to sort my tomatoes by variety so that each jar contains mostly the same kind of tomato. This isn’t by any means absolutely necessary, it’s just my preference. Here I have a bunch of Paul Robeson tomatoes. I’ve removed their stems in preparation for peeling. Beside them is a bowl I use to collect compostable kitchen waste. I throw the tomato peels and cores into the bowl to add to my compost pile out back.

To peel your tomatoes, score an “X” into the bottom of each fruit.

Carefully drop several tomatoes into the boiling water for about 30 seconds, or until you can see the peel beginning to pull away from the fruit.

Using a pair of tongs, move the tomatoes from the boiling water into the bowl of cold water. One by one, remove the peel from your tomatoes (remember to compost!) and cut out the core.

Cut the peeled fruit into halves or quarters and reserve in a separate bowl.

Continue to peel and quarter your tomatoes until you have the desired amount.

Next, you may need to add salt and citric acid or lemon juice to your hot jars. You will need to consult your own recipe, but for the one I use, for 1 L jars, add 2 tbsp of bottled lemon juice (1 tbsp for pint jars) and 1 tsp course salt (1/2 tsp for pint jars).

Pack the tomatoes into the jars until juice fills in the spaces and you have a half an inch headspace (the space between the top of the jar and the food inside).

Pack each jar, one by one, place the lids and screwbands and process in your boiling-water canner for 85 minutes.

After 85 minutes have elapsed, remove the lid from the canner, and allow the jars to sit in the hot water for five minutes before removing.

Label and store. Eat! Remember summer!

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