- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
Okay, partly inspired by Koyote's stocking the larder thread, the wife and I decided to can some tomatoes. The decision came right at a good time as hampers of tomatoes were on sale at our local fruit stand. We purchased 3 hampers which amounted to 90 lbs of tomatoes and somewhat over a bushel worth (bushel ~ 64 lbs).
It took pretty much the whole day to do. But in the end, we'll have 64 jars of preserved tomatoes. I sent my wife out to go get a couple of extra boiling pots and she came back with a surprise. Two pressure canners! At first I was a bit miffed because of the money spent, but her response was (I'm not kidding), "I was going to get the boiler pots, but then I started thinking of the SHTF scenario and wouldn't be better to have pressure canners - we could can everything from meat and potatoes instead of just tomatoes'.
How am I supposed to be peeved at that. She knows what makes me tick
Well the fact that she did get the pressure canner, this allowed us to more easily incorporate some onions and green peppers into the mix. Makes the jars even better suited to making soups, chilli and speghetti sauces.
Basically the process is easy. Just takes work to process all the food and it helps to have two people doing it.
So, we started out by washing all the field tomatoes in cold water, just to knock off the dirt. These aren't pretty tomotoes, they are field one for canning so their skins are full of blemishes and stuff.
We blanch them for about 3 minutes in boiling water, just until the skin starts cracking, to make skin removal easier. I actually like the skins when I'm cooking a fresh pasta sauce. They add to the fiber content. However, for canning, the skins gotta come off. They contain all the blemishes. Also the skins increase the pH which isn't something you want to happen in your can.
The koyote skinner and breeden Big paw had the brunt of the workout.
This was the patina after the first hamper was processed
These flexible cutting mats are the bomb! You cut your tomatoes and then sort of role the mat into a funnel to pour them into the pot.
more coming
It took pretty much the whole day to do. But in the end, we'll have 64 jars of preserved tomatoes. I sent my wife out to go get a couple of extra boiling pots and she came back with a surprise. Two pressure canners! At first I was a bit miffed because of the money spent, but her response was (I'm not kidding), "I was going to get the boiler pots, but then I started thinking of the SHTF scenario and wouldn't be better to have pressure canners - we could can everything from meat and potatoes instead of just tomatoes'.
How am I supposed to be peeved at that. She knows what makes me tick
Well the fact that she did get the pressure canner, this allowed us to more easily incorporate some onions and green peppers into the mix. Makes the jars even better suited to making soups, chilli and speghetti sauces. Basically the process is easy. Just takes work to process all the food and it helps to have two people doing it.
So, we started out by washing all the field tomatoes in cold water, just to knock off the dirt. These aren't pretty tomotoes, they are field one for canning so their skins are full of blemishes and stuff.
We blanch them for about 3 minutes in boiling water, just until the skin starts cracking, to make skin removal easier. I actually like the skins when I'm cooking a fresh pasta sauce. They add to the fiber content. However, for canning, the skins gotta come off. They contain all the blemishes. Also the skins increase the pH which isn't something you want to happen in your can.
The koyote skinner and breeden Big paw had the brunt of the workout.
This was the patina after the first hamper was processed
These flexible cutting mats are the bomb! You cut your tomatoes and then sort of role the mat into a funnel to pour them into the pot.
more coming
Last edited:
