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Replies to Msg. #1096795
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 Msg. #  Subject Posted by    Board    Date   
38625 Re: Tomatoes...
   Your dog ate them???? GREAT DOG, He looks happy and full........... Go... 		capt_nemo   POPE 5   26 Aug 2019
 4:29 AM
38621 Re: Tomatoes...
   Nice job De. Think you'll have enough to share? Zim. 		Zimbler0   POPE 5   26 Aug 2019
 2:34 AM
38620 Re: Tomatoes...
   You are FARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR more patient than me De! Looks like you... 		micro   POPE 5   26 Aug 2019
 1:55 AM

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Tomatoes...

By: Decomposed in POPE 5
Mon, 26 Aug 19 12:59 AM
Msg. 38615 of 62138
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It is my misfortune to report that my wife has run off (to Virginia), but life goes on even while she’s away. Our tomato plants are crammed with fruit… some ripe, many green. The ripe ones have to be picked and preserved. Therefore, my project today will be canning. How hard can it be?

I looked on-line and found a good set of instructions. Then I found some that were easier. Then, easier still. I eventually found some that were so simple that an idiot could get them right. Hopefully I can too. No need for a pressure cooker, or to boil the tomatoes in their jars. This is faster and simpler. It may not preserve the tomatoes for as long as other methods since it minimizes the sterilization processes that other canning whizzes recommend but, in the comments of the recipe I’m using, some of the experienced readers claimed that their ancestors used this approach for millions of years and most didn’t contract botulism. That means it's gotta work. I’ll save the harder ways to can for some future date when my wife is here to give me horrified looks and tell me I’m doing it all wrong.

I went shopping and picked up what I needed and didn’t have: quart-sized canning jars, a jar-lifter (for plucking the jars out of the oven), citric acid and a canning funnel. I’d have used my normal funnel, but the hole’s too small for this purpose. (And I might get tomato in my tractor engine.)





Step 1: Pick tomatoes. I initially planned on filling 6 jars today. I’ve never done this before and don’t want to overdo it. A quart of water weighs 2.1 pounds, so 6 quarts requires about 12 ½ pounds of tomatoes. I went to the garden and picked the ripest ones. They came in at 19 pounds, more than I’d expected, but some parts of them will be excised in later steps so I may not be far off the mark. I’ll plan for and prepare 9 jars – just in case I need that many.

Step 2: Wash all the pots, knives, canning tools (particularly the funnel), jars, lids and rings - anything that might come in contact with food. And for chrissake, wash your hands! Some people wear rubber gloves. I don’t know if that’s going overboard or not.

Step 3: Wash and core the tomatoes. Remove the bugs. Even at Halloween, spiders in the tomato sauce won’t go over well.

Cut away bad spots, too. Bad spots include anything dark that you might not want to see in your spaghetti. I would normally eat some of these “bad” spots. I have a variety of tomatoes, some of which are far more prone to spots and cracks than others, and they don’t usually indicate “rot.” But for canning, cut them away.



Step 3: Wash the jars and lids with soapy water and rinse. Whoops. I already said that. And this is the second "Step 3." Let's just call it Step 3 1/2, okay? Put the two-piece lids in a pot of water on the stove. Put the jars in the oven face down on a pizza pan. Don’t turn the oven or the stove burner on yet. That comes later.




Step 4: Blanch the tomatoes. Blanch is one of those names that was everywhere a generation ago but is unheard of today. I don’t know why that is, but I’m sure it must have something to do with canning tomatoes.

Blanching just means boiling – for a minute or two. Some of the guidance I read said that when they’re properly blanched, tomato skins should split. When I did it, the skins started falling off even before I began scooping up the tomatoes. Maybe I over-blanched?


Step 5: Ice bath. This is one of the more peculiar steps and I couldn’t find anything that explained why it’s done. Nor could I find anything that said how long the ice bath should be. I know that when my wife takes a bath, she’s in there for a good week, so I’ll give the tomatoes a reasonable amount of time.


Step 6: Bath complete, move the tomatoes to the sink and peel them. The skins should come right off. Put the tomatoes in a bowl and throw the peels away. Don’t get it backwards.


Step 7: It occurs to me that tomato peels are chock full of nutrients and antioxidants. It’s a shame to just throw them away, so consider using them as a garnish on tonight’s salad, or putting them in your compost, or giving them to an appreciative friend.



Step 8: Quarter the tomatoes and put them into a deep stewing pot. It’s easy to make a careless mistake with a sharp knife, so I recommend a dull one. That way if you do slip, it won’t be any big deal.


Step 9: Some people add fresh basil to the pot. I don’t have any and wouldn’t know how much to add anyway, so I advise against it. Put the pot on the stove and set the heat to Moderately High. Heat it slowly, stirring often for the next 45 minutes or so until it is ALMOST to a boil (temp above 200° if you’ve got a thermometer). From this point forward, keep everything as sterile as possible. Even though we’ve all seen it on TV, resist any urge you have to play Julia Child and lick the spoon.


Step 10: Because all of this is time consuming, I suggest only now turning on the oven (250° to sterilize and heat the jars) and the stove burner (to get the lids warm/hot but NOT boiling).

Step 11: Clean the kitchen since it’s bound to be a holy mess by now, and keep stirring the tomatoes.

Step 12: As it heats, an orange foam will collect on the surface. That means it’s getting close. But you want 200°.

Not yet.

NOW it’s ready.

Step 13: Put a clean towel on the counter, along with the funnel and jar-lifter. If you’re like me, you’ll use your wife’s favorite towel… the one she just paid way too much for at Macy’s.

Step 14: Remove a jar from the oven and put it on the stove next to the pot of tomatoes face up.

Step 15: Add ½ tsp citric acid powder and 1 tsp salt.

Step 16: With a ladle and the canning funnel, fill the jar to the bottom of the jar’s screwline. Don’t fill it all the way – it’s important to leave ½ to 1 inch of air. I had plenty of liquid in my tomatoes, so there were no air pockets. If that’s not the case with what you’re canning, you’ll need to add boiling water to get the air pockets out.


Step 17: With a clean towel or a paper towel, wipe off the rim of the jar, particularly the exterior and upper rim since they will be in contact with the lid and ring. You don’t want anything there that bacteria can grow on.

Step 18: With tongs, pull a jar lid from the pot of water on the stove. Place it on the jar. Then pull one ring from the pot and screw it on, securing the jar lid. Make sure it’s on straight and tight.

Step 19: Put the jar upside-down on the towel on the counter. Let it sit for five minutes, then turn it upright.

Step 20: Repeat steps 14 – 19 until all of the tomatoes are canned.


Step 21: With a magic marker, write the date and what’s been canned onto each lid. You can’t use the lid again, at least I don't think you can, so no there's no harm in it.

That’s it. All done. Piece of cake… not. It took about 3 ½ hours.

I’ve seen advice to let the jars cool before putting them away. That makes sense to me, so as to not disrupt the still-forming seal in the lid. But I’ve also seen it recommended to wrap the jars in a quilt so that they’ll cool slowly. One person went as far as to recommend leaving the jars alone FOR A WEEK. Okay. Maybe that’s for the best. I’m not going to do that.

Did I make any mistakes? Of course. It was my first time.

Mistake 1) Jar lids can slide into one another while they’re sitting in hot water and they don’t always want to come apart when you’re using tongs. If you have to pry them apart with your fingers, you’ll need to wash your hands first and rinse the lids off in the water afterward before putting them onto a jar. Lids stuck together can also hold a teaspoon or so of hot water, so use care when pulling them apart. Here’s an example of two lids that are stuck until (manually) separated:


Mistake 2) My jar-gripper wasn’t at all useful. I think it is intended to be used mostly in the extraction of immersed jars from boiling water. The canning method I used today didn’t ever involve putting jars into water. Moreover, the jars themselves were square, not round, so the gripper wasn’t even helpful at getting them out of the oven. I used a pot holder, being sure to stay away from the tops of the jars.

Mistake 3) I didn’t screw one jar’s lid on tight enough, so when I put it upside down on my wife’s new towel, tomato sauce immediately leaked. I saw and easily stopped the leak, but I forgot to clean the jar when I re-tightened its ring. I’m not even sure I could. For all I know, removing the ring to clean around the lid might ruin the lid’s seal. So now I’ve got a contaminated jar rim. Fortunately, I do know which jar it was, so that one will live in the refrigerator and get used first. (Note that when I labeled the lids, I also added jar numbers, 1 through 7. Jar #3 was the problem.)

I washed the towel (cold water). Faint stains remain.

Mistake 4) As I filled each jar, I kept forgetting to add the salt and citric acid. The acid isn’t important – a lot of people on the internet say that tomatoes have plenty of acid already so more isn’t needed – but the salt might matter. Of the seven jars, I made this mistake at least three times. Next time I do this (in a few days, probably), I’ll pull the jars from the oven all together and put the acid and salt into them before adding any other contents.


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Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months