Canning Tomatoes

[Angry Perch]

I'm a canning rookie, and my experience is limited to pressure canning meat. I'm coming into lots of tomatoes from the greenhouse, so would like to can some this year. Everything I've looked at says I need to add acid whether pressure canning or hot water bath, so is there any advantage to one over the other?

[Fidelk]

Looks like a good tomato year, unlike last. As an alternative to canning......I just chop them up and simmer down to a sauce. Then into quart freezer bags and into the chest freezer. Finished off a few bags from 2020 recently and have a few bags left from 2021. They tasted fine, even after 3 years.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Looks like a good tomato year, unlike last. As an alternative to canning......I just chop them up and simmer down to a sauce. Then into quart freezer bags and into the chest freezer. Finished off a few bags from 2020 recently and have a few bags left from 2021. They tasted fine, even after 3 years.

Exactly canning tomatoes is a waste of time. We freeze ours in ziplock bags right off the vine.👍

[Dhoey07]

Canned tomatoes once.....didn't matter how tight I packed them, the jar ended up half full.  Sauce and freeze or dehydrate for me.

[Twispriver]

I always use the pressure canner

[Angry Perch]

I always use the pressure canner

Do you generally cook beforehand or cold pack?

[Twispriver]

I've always cooked the tomatoes or sauce and then canned - there was a thread a couple of years back with good information and there are people way more experienced with tomatoes than I am - @KFhunter (I think) does it a lot - maybe he will weigh in

[Karl Blanchard]

We put up about 50-60 quarts of stewed tomatoes annually. Never added acid. Skin off, chunk up, simmer, then into jars with a bit of salt and water bath. My mom still does it old school and just adds the hot maters into a jar and on with the lid and ring. No water bath. Never an issue with them sealing. I've read that the acidity of modern tomatoes is lower than back in the day so you should always water bath so I do.

[b0bbyg]

Last 2 years the wife has put up sauce which is what we use the most.

Once it is cooked down into water bath with a little salt added. One year she seasoned some for spaghetti before the sealing process.

[Karl Blanchard]

We used to reduce some to sauce but I didn't like that much commitment that early. In plain tomatoe it just opens up more options. Soup or stew base, sauces, chili, etc. Or just plain. I've been known to just eat it plain or over some noodles

[Angry Perch]

We used to reduce some to sauce but I didn't like that much commitment that early. In plain tomatoe it just opens up more options. Soup or stew base, sauces, chili, etc. Or just plain. I've been known to just eat it plain or over some noodles

I agree with that sentiment. Similar to meat for me. It's easy to turn unseasoned deer into tacos, but it's hard to turn taco seasoned deer into stroganoff.

Thanks for all of the replies. Looks like I have lots of options. 

[ganghis]

I usually dehydrate them and throw them in the freezer.  That's pretty convenient for adding to venison/elk chili in winter.

[Angry Perch]

I got a woodfired pizza oven recently, so I really want to get as close as I can to canned San Marzano tomatoes for sauce.

[merkaba93]

Hey Angry Perch.
Yep making your own sauce is a good project! I usually have 4-6 san Marzano plants the last few years. What I do is harvest when ripe and place them in a large 2 gallon bag and freeze them. Then can them all at once in early Oct. I usually have to have friends/neighbors harvest tomatoes for me because they really produce in Sept and I'm out of town salmon fishing pretty much all Sept.
My water bath canning set up is pretty small, only 5 pints at a time, but I usually borrow my folks and do an additional 8 pints on a second burner.
As for the food mill, I started with a hand crank, but a few years back I upgraded to an automatic food mill. Ball Harvest Pro, if you google that you'll find it.

Quarter or halve 6-7 lbs tomatos, about one 2 gallon bag full (optional add 2 tbs garlic, 1/4 cup onion, 1 tbs dried oregano, 1 tbs dried basil, 2 bay leaf). Put in large stock pot and bring to boil, then simmer, cover, and stir every 5 min for a total of 20 min.
Uncover and cook an additional 15 min.

Pass through food mill with fine disk. Add 2 tsp salt.

Scald 5 pint jars. Soak lids and rings in hot water.

Fill jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Add 1 tbs lemon juice to each pint. Clean rims, seal until snug.

Cover jars by 1 inch of water, bring to boil, then process for 15 min. When done turn off heat and leave jars for 3 min. Remove and let cool.

[Angry Perch]

Awesome. Thank you!