Home Canning Tomatoes

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You Say Tomato

Here I have pulled together instructions, ideas, recipes, supplies, and cookbooks from across the web for canning tomatoes to be enjoyed year round. Home canned tomatoes have almost always been present in my life. My dad grows the tomatoes and my mom cans them. There's no comparison between the taste of those tomatoes and the ones you buy in a can. I think some of it has to do with the difference between glass and metal, but also probably the tomatoes being picked at the right time, too.

Quick Find: Instructions, Supplies, Recipes, and the latest Buzz.

Tomatoes photo courtesy of yomi955 on Flickr.

Instructions

Great Tomato Canning Instructions

Start With a Quart of Tomatoes

Starting With a Quart of Tomatoes

Amazon Price: $5.88 (as of 06/01/2012)Buy Now

"The premise of this book is that if you've got a quart of canned tomatoes then you can make oodles of delightful meals lickety split. Home-canned tomatoes are asserted to be far better than tinned tomatoes (and they are), so part of the book is devoted to techniques of growing and canning your own tomatoes. The bulk of it, however, is a succession of recipes beautifully introduced and with meticulous directions. " - Chef Mark

Watch How It's Done

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Canning and Preserving for Dummies

I wish they'd give these Dummies and Idiot's guides new names because they really are the best source of information on the topics they cover.

Canning and Preserving For Dummies

Amazon Price: $9.98 (as of 05/31/2012)Buy Now

Canning Guides

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Other Canning Lenses

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Supplies

Granite Ware Canning Kit with Blancher

Granite Ware 12-Piece Enamel-on-Steel Canning Kit with Blancher

Amazon Price: $62.54 (as of 05/31/2012)Buy Now

I like that this comes with a separate, smaller, blanching pot, along with tongs, a magnetic lid lifter, jar rack, jar lifter, and funnel.

Canning Kits

The basic tools you need to handle the jars, lids, etc. Each kit is a little bit different.
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Pressure Cooker/Canners

Although there are steam canners on the market, pressure cooker/canners are your safest bet.
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Canning Jars

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Recipes

Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipes

For Canning

Image courtesy of Bill HR on Flickr.

Spaghetti Sauce
Oregano and parsley flavor this sauce.
Ragu Sauce
Celery, green pepper, onion, tabasco, garlic, chili powder, italian seasoning, and oregano are the seasonings.
Spaghetti Sauce #2
Celery, onion, green peppers, oregano, basil, and fennel seed are some of the ingredients.

Salsa Recipes

For Canning

Image courtesy of Florian on Flickr.

Searching for salsa recipes yielded interesting results. The same information is reprinted over and over again. Also, many of the salsa recipes were really more of what I would call tomato relish or chili sauce.

Apparently there are some pitfalls to canning your own salsa and many of the links warn you to follow their instructions to the letter. Therefore I advise you to be extra careful when preserving salsa.
Canning Salsa with Cilantro
Detailed information of the proper procedures for making salsa go along with the recipe.
Basic Salsa
This is really basic: tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapenos, garlic and salt.
16 Homemade Salsa Recipes
I couldn't pick just one. Roasted Tomato Salsa is the most intriguing to me.

Tomato Relish Recipes

For Canning

Image courtesy of spin spin on Flickr.

Tomato Relish for Burgers
Tomatoes, onions, green peppers and celery seed - what's not to love?
Ripe Tomato Relish
This one is sweet and hot and winter spicy with green and hot peppers, onions, celery seed and what I call gingerbread spices: cinnamon, allspice, and cloves.
Raw Tomato Relish
This is a very unusual relish in which you drain the tomatoes and other vegetables, then pour a vinegar/spice syrup over them in the jars before you can. As you scroll down the page to find the recipe you'll see lots of other great looking tomato recipes.

Green Tomato Pickles and Relish

For Canning

Image courtesy of willsfca on Flickr.

Grab those green tomatoes before the first frost and make some relish. Ours is like sweet pickle relish.
Green Tomato Relish
This makes a nice batch.
Green Tomato Pickle
The lemon and spices in this are making my mouth water!
Green Tomato Chutney
What makes this chutney instead of relish is the addition of raisins.

Scalloped Tomato Recipe

For using those canned tomatoes

Of course there are a gazillion things you can do with your canned tomatoes but this is one of my family's favorites.

Ingredients:

1 quart of canned tomatoes, brought to a boil and simmered for about 5 minutes

1/2 stick of butter
3-5 pieces of bread, preferably white
Sugar to taste (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Melt the butter at a medium high heat in a large skillet. Break up the bread into bite sized pieces and brown in the butter, stirring almost constantly. The bread will burn before you know it. Turn heat down to medium and add tomatoes. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes (depending on how much liquid you have). Add seasonings.

That's all there is to it. You have to be the type of person who doesn't mind soggy bread or the mouth feel will put you off right away, but the buttery bread flavor and tomato together? Yum!

Image courtesy of Tavallai on Flickr.

Garden Fresh Tomato Recipes

Buzz

Canning News

Image courtesy of thebittenword.com on Flickr.

YES YOU CAN CAN: There's something being harvested nearly all year in ...
YOU'VE GROWN a bushel of tomatoes. A peck of peppers. A mass of mangoes. You don't need to go on an eating frenzy or pelt all the neighbors with leftover fruit. For centuries, people have preserved their foods by canning, freezing or drying them.
The NC Cooperative Extension canning classes this summer
These are the boiling water canner method and the pressure canner method. The boiling water bath method is safe for fruits, tomatoes and pickles, as well as jam, jellies and other preserves. Pressure canning is the only safe method of canning ...
Spring vegetables sprouting at local Hilton Garden Inn
... ground for planting. by Emily Canning-Dean | Reporters Twinsburg -- First graders from Matthew Hill's class at Wilcox Primary School exchanged an afternoon in the classroom for a day in the dirt May 23, as they planted a garden full of tomatoes, ...
UM?Extension Office offers class on canning
The warm water bath canning class is for high acid foods such as tomatoes, fruits, jams, and jellies. It will take place at 9 am June 8 at the University of Maryland Extension Office, 18410 Muncaster Road, Derwood. Pre-registration is required.

Are You Canny?

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I CAN haz COMMENTz

Image courtesy of thebittenword.com on Flickr.

If the title of this guestbook just seems strange and stupid to you, check out the lolcats at I Can Has Cheeseburger. At first I thought it was an insult to my intelligence but now I laugh uncontrollably every time I go look. You might need a good laugh after hours of canning.

  • nightbear Sep 25, 2011 @ 9:26 pm | delete
    Beautiful lens, and I enjoyed learning from your page about canning. You do make it seem simple. Blessed by an angel on the I love this word quest.
  • MelaniePalmero Aug 23, 2011 @ 1:20 am | delete
    I love your lens! I used top help mom can tomatoes back home. I skin hundreds of tomatoes everyday, but it was heck of a good time. The best thing is we'll have rows of tomato jams that will last for a year. I just love canning! By the way, here's a good link on home canning that will help fellow home canners out there: http://www.jesrestaurantequipment.com/jesrestaurantequipmentblog/the-dos-and-donts-of-residential-canning/
  • karendd123 Jun 17, 2011 @ 8:50 pm | delete
    It is work! But it is worth it to can.
  • eccles1 Feb 7, 2010 @ 10:10 am | delete
    love this lens!
  • sandyspider Oct 10, 2009 @ 9:54 am | delete
    That is a cool looking button you have on my Tomato recipe lens. Again fantastic lens. I would give it another 5 stars if I could.
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