FALL: golden leaves, shorter cooler days, sweaters, and canning stewed tomatoes season. Surprised you with the last one didn’t I. I know almost no one cans anything anymore. No time, don’t know how and don’t know what supplies I need. I get it; all are valid reasons to not can. However, I want to know what is in my canned food, and the best way to do that is grow it and then can it myself!
My vegetable garden has peaked and is starting to wind down. My tomato plants have loads of ripe, juicy tomatoes. Now is the perfect time to capture all their juicy, sweet, deliciousness into sauced, stewed, roasted, dehydrated, and whole canned tomatoes.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, Fred and I love tomatoes. They are the heart and soul of our canned produce. Over the winter, I will transform them into pizza and pasta sauce, soups, stews, chili... The list is long and oh sooo YUM!!!
If you want to start canning stewed tomatoes or other vegetables, there are some basic supplies you will need. The good news is you invest in them now and can reuse them over and over for years to come.
What supplies do I need for Canning Tomatoes?
Canning essentials:
Method for Canning Tomatoes with Vegetables
When you add onions, peppers, herbs, and garlic to tomatoes you shift the acidity to be less acid. Botulism can grow in low acid foods so you will need to pressure process the jars of tomatoes in a pressure canner. I recommend the Balls Blue Book of Preserving as a resource for canning low pressure foods.
Step by Step Method:
- Make sure canning jars are clean and not chipped. I run the jars and lids through the sanitize cycle on my dishwasher.
- Fill the jars with the vegetables that you are canning.
- Put lid and ring on jar and hand tighten.
- Process in a pressure canner for the time, and pressure recommended in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving.
Italian Style Canned Tomatoes:
- First; blanch, peel, and dice the tomatoes.
Dice up red or green peppers, onions, and fresh herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, and marjoram. - Mix all the ingredients and fill the canning jars to about 1 inch from the top.
- Cover with the lids and tighten with the rings.
- Process in a pressure canner for time and pressure indicated in the Ball blue book of canning.
- This book or a similar book that gives times and pressures for safe canning is a must for home canning. Make sure you understand which vegetables need to be pressure canned and follow the guidelines for proper times and pressures. Tomatoes are a high acid food. When canned alone they don’t need to be pressure canned. However, adding the peppers, onions, and herbs changes the acidity and necessitate pressure canning.
Canned Whole Tomatoes
Canned whole tomatoes. Instead of chopping the tomatoes up and adding the onions peppers and herbs, pack the whole tomatoes in a quart jar. Add a teaspoon of salt and process with the stewed tomatoes. For extra yum add some fresh herbs to the jar with the whole tomatoes.
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How to Blanch and Peel Tomatoes
Equipment
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- large kettle
- slotted spoon
Ingredients
- 4 lbs Ripe Tomatoes
Instructions
- Fill large kettle 1/2 full of water and bring to a boil.
- Carefully add the washed fresh tomatoes to the boiling water using a slotted spoon to avoid splashing.
- In about 20 seconds you will see the skin on the tomatoes start to split. Once the skin on the tomato splits, remove the tomato from the boiling water with a slotted spoon.
- Put the tomato in cold water to stop the cooking process.
- If a tomatoe's skin didn't split within 2 minutes after placing it in the boiling water, remove it anyway and put it in the cold water.
- The skins will slip off easily.
Stewed Tomatoes, Italian Style - Canned
Equipment
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- Pressure Cooker
- Ball Blue Book of Preserving
Ingredients
- 4 lbs tomatoes fresh, washed
- ½ cup bell peppers red or green, diced
- ½ cup onions diced
- 2 Tbsp basil fresh finely minced (dried use 1 Tbsp)
- 2 Tbsp oregano fresh finely minced (dried use 1 Tbsp.)
- 1 Tbsp parsley fresh Italian parsley finely minced
- 1 Tbsp marjoram fresh finely minced (dried use 1 tsp)
- 4 cloves garlic finely minced
Instructions
- Blanch and peel the tomatoes.
- Dice the peppers, onions, herbs, and garlic.
- Mix all the ingredients together.
- Fill a clean canning jar to 1 inch from the top of the jar.
- Add 1 tsp salt to each quart jar or 1/2 tsp salt to each pint jar.
- Put the lids and rings on the jars and tighten the rings well.
- Place in pressure canner and process according to the the instructions in the Ball Blue book of canning. Will be 10lbs of pressure for 25 minutes.
