How to Can Tomatoes

In a good year with September comes the inevitable avalanche of tomatoes.  This year has been a good year judging from these that were picked in one day.  Plenty of rain and hot, steamy days the tomato loves.

Other years - not so much.  2015 was a disappointing tomato harvest.   

We eat fresh tomatoes morning, noon and night.  Tomato salad with baby mozzarella, tomato on a burger, tomato with breakfast and sometimes a tomato eaten straight-up like an apple.  Since we cannot eat them all immediately it is a good policy to can the excess for future use.  Canned tomatoes can later be converted to juice and sauces and canned again.  It is like this delicious fruit can be reincarnated in multiple lifeforms.

In any event here are the instructions.

Pick your tomatoes with a view to get them from vine to jar withing 24 hours - give or take.  This optimizes freshness of the flavors.

click on images to enlarge

Estimate how many quart jars you might need and get them going on the sanitize cycle of your dishwasher.  While that's happening wash your fruits and set aside to drain. At the same time set a pot of water on the stove to boil.

Introduce your tomatoes to the pot of boiling water and allow them to set until their skins pop. 

Do five to six at a time depending on their sizes to keep the water hot. 

Fetch them out with a slotted spoon and place them in a sink of cold tap water to cool down quickly.  Periodically drain the water and replace it with cold water from the tap.


After all your tomatoes have been scalded return to the sink armed with a paring knife. Using the knife core your fruits and slip the skins-off.  Depending upon the size of the tomato quarter of halve them in a large bowl.  

If you're like me place the skins and cores in a colander for composting.  You don't want that stuff messing with the baffles and screens in your country septic system.  If you are a city dweller you might be inclined to leave all the skins and debris in the sink and after you've cut-up the last tomato hit the garbage disposal and send everything down the pipe for the municipal waste water people to deal with.

Remove your sanitized quart jars from the dishwasher and in each add two teaspoons of lemon juice and a single teaspoon of canning salt.  Tomatoes nowadays vary in their acidity and for canning purposes the addition of the lemon juice assures the proper pH.  It does not impart any off-taste.

Add the tomatoes to the jars using a narrow spatula to collapse any voids or pockets.  Top them with lids and bands and process in a boiling water bath for 50 minutes.  Remove from the canner to cool and when their lids 'pop' you're all set.  Shelf-stable tomatoes.

Yield on this batch was eleven quarts.
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* A word about the jars and lids.  Sanitation is next to Godliness.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - in the microwave heat a Pyrex measuring cup full of water to a boil. Drop your lids in the hot water.  Fish them out with a sterile tongs.