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Tomato Canning 101

2010-09-05T11:46:58Z

I’ve been asked about canning tomatoes so I thought I’d write up a closer look at how I did it. In a lot of ways I think jams are easier but tomatoes are in season so I’ll start here and move back to jams and jellies in a week or two. Just in time for my case of concords!

Step 1-Getting Started

Canning isn’t hard but deciding to take the plunge is definitely the easy part. I only have some basic supplies. First, a big pot. When I first started, I used my biggest soup pot. I’ve since “upgraded” to two 16 quart stock pots that I bought at Kmart 5 or 6 years ago. I usually only use one but if I’m going to end up with more than 6 or 7 jars two pots are a must for me. I don’t want to spend all night processing jars.

It’s pretty easy to find a canning kit to round out your supplies but you can get by without in a pinch. I find jar tongs (if you don’t have these you can wrap rubber bands around the ends of regular ones I hear), a funnel (although not for this project) and a lid lifter to be indispensable. A rack is probably not a bad idea but I don’t use one. I just push a clean kitchen towel down to the bottom of the pot and set the jars down on top of it.

You’ll also need jars and lids. If you’re starting from scratch the jars you buy will come with the lids and bands you’ll need. I always buy more than I think I’ll need because I can’t think of anything worse than running out midstream. You can guestimate how many jars you’ll need by looking at your recipe’s yield. Though I always seem to come out with a little more than I’m supposed to.

The jar aisle will have a at least a couple of different sizes to choose from. You’ll probably find 1/2 pints, pints and quarts in both regular and wide mouth. The type of jar you choose will depend on what you’re canning. For tomatoes, a widemouth jar in either a pint or a quart size is a good choice. I chose to do mostly pints because it’s closest to the size of the cans that I usually buy from the grocery store. Even though I bought a whole box of new jars I had so many tomatoes that I ended up having to make do with some regular mouth jars and some old spaghetti sauce jars that I found in the basement. Shoving tomatoes down those narrow necks wasn’t easy so plan accordingly.

Walmart seems to universally carry canning supplies. Locally you can find all of the supplies you’ll need at Ace Hardware in Waverly. I can’t say if all Ace Hardware’s stock canning supplies but they seem like the type of place that might. I can’t tell you how awesome it is that they do here though because now I don’t have to trek out to Walmart which is the only other place I’ve found them. Go Ace! They have pots and everything. Not only that but you can go the farmer’s market and then just run across the street to the hardware store.

Right, so about the market. That’s where I found my tomatoes. I had to ask around a bit. I started with the vendors that would recognize my face. I was looking for seconds, tomatoes that have some imperfections, because I wanted to keep the cost down but didn’t have any luck. When I didn’t have any luck there I branched out to other vendors who looked like they had nice tomatoes and enough of them. I ended up at One Straw and paid $25 for the case which was described to me as weighing about 40lbs.

Tomatoes are in season as I write this and there are tons of different varieties. I like Roma tomatoes because they’re fleshy and make good sauce which is chiefly what I use tomatoes for. Recipes will usually suggest a tomato. I think Roma’s are best for sauce and paste but use any old ripe tomato for salsa.

One last word on tomatoes. That’s about 40lbs not to mention the big plastic case they come in. So when the guy tells you that he’ll take them to your car for you… well, you should be able to tell him where your car is. Because you will be slightly embarrassed when you specifically ask for a large quantity of tomatoes but have no way to get them home. You cannot walk home with them and your corn and your watermelon. It’s not going to happen. You will not be able to perch them atop the sunshade on your stroller. In fact, you will barely be able to stumble with them halfway down the block from where the guy brought them out for you to where your good for nothing husband moved the car. Just FYI.

Step 2-Preparing the fruit

Fruit is temperamental. Once I handed over the money it was a race against the clock. In hindsight, buying seconds would have been a complete disaster. The tomatoes would have been rotten long before I ever got to them. 40lbs is a commitment it took me almost 24 hours to get all of them ready for packing.

The tomatoes I bought were under-ripe by a day or two. I think this is ideal because it allows for a leettle tiny bit of flexibility and the flesh is still firm when it’s time for peeling and packing. Ideally my tomatoes wouldn’t see the inside of the fridge but I wasn’t staying up all night blanching and peeling tomatoes so into the fridge it was.

I set a big pot of water to boil on the stove and set up an ice water bath in a big pyrex bowl. I worked with a colander-full of tomatoes at a time. I used a pairing knife to make a small x in the skin on the bottom of each tomato. Then I put about 5 at a time into the pot of boiling water. Most recipes say you should do one a time, but honestly. Each tomato was in the water for between 15 and 30 seconds. Then straight into the ice water. After the ice bath I used the pairing knife to pull the skin off and core the tomatoes and put them straight into a clean bowl. When the bowl was full I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.

I did as much as I could the first night and went to bed. I guess I got through about half. The other half I did over the course of the next day whenever I got the chance. I did the last bowlful in front of the tv with my vegetable peeler while Caillou was on and that worked perfectly fine too.

If you are going to put your tomatoes in the fridge remember to bring them back to room temperature before moving on to packing your jars.

Step 3- Preparing and filling the jars

Before you can pack the jars they have to be cleaned. I prepare my jars by running them through the dishwasher. They get superhot in there and it’s dead easy. The jars should be hot when you start to pack. I usually set my pot to boil around the same time that I run my jars through the dishwasher. You need enough water to cover the jars by an inch or two. The jars will displace some water and you don’t want the pot to boil over and put out the flame on your stove and almost blow up your house. You don’t want that at all.

I packed as many tomatoes into the jars as possible. As I packed, I pushed down on them. Not to break them but to release some of the juices so that there weren’t any air pockets in the jar. Any space not filled by tomatoes was filled with juice. Once the jars were full I ran a spatula around the sides of the jar to get rid of any air pockets trapped inside.

Tomatoes can be tricky. They’re on the low aciditiy/high acidity fence. I added a tablespoon of lemon juice to each pint just to be safe. It’s important to use bottled lemon juice for this purpose even though it would be nicer to use fresh lemons.

Step 4- Processing

I wash my lids and put them in a small bowl with some boiling water from the big pot. Once that’s done I use a clean kitchen towel to wipe the rims of the jars. This is where the lid lifter comes in handy. Even with my asbestos hands, lifting lids out of hot hot water is a challenge. I use the lid lifter to grab them and position them on the jars. Then I just screw on the bands. When they’re all ready I use the jar tongs to set them into the water. Again, boiling water is H-O-T. Sometimes I remember to use an oven mit while I’m putting the jars in… sometimes I don’t. I start the time once all the jars are in, the lid is on and the water has returned to a full boil. Years ago I used this recipe successfully. The recipe is no longer considered safe by many standards. I processed my jars for 55 minutes after doing a little research. I acidified my tomatoes and felt comfortable with 55 minutes though I think the USDA recommends 90 and my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook recommends 85. You have to figure out what you’re comfortable with. If I was pregnant or I thought any of my kids would eat them or I didn’t plan to cook them again before eating them I probably would have processed them for longer.

Aaaand… that’s it. I let the jars sit in the water for 5 minutes before setting them on a clean towel to cool. There’s nothing quite like listening to the ping of jars sealing. All of my jars sealed though I did break one. All in all a success, I think!

PS I also find these reusable caps to be VERY useful.

Pizza and Lemonade

2010-09-04T03:03:41Z

My girls love to eat pizza. Tonight we did a little happy Friday pizza and lemonade. Do you have a Kitchenaid mixer? Have you tried this recipe yet. This is the best all around recipe for pizza dough ever. Ever. If you don’t have a Kitchenaid, this recipe is the reason you should get one. Best. Ever.

Well, I just wanted to check in. The pepper jelly is done and now I think I’ll take a nice long break from the giant boiling pot for a little while. Except… that tomorrow is market day. I have to be strong. I’ll have Chase remind me about willpower I guess (which she knows all about thanks to good old Frog and Toad).

Poor girl was hurting so badly this evening that I excused her from the table to go lie on the couch. Ben says she needs shoes with a better arch. I, quite frankly, don’t know what to think. Sometimes I think she’s just yanking my chain but tonight she was clearly in pain. So not fun.

Tomatoes Tomatoes

2010-09-03T02:29:28Z

I always say things like ‘this is the last time I’ll mention it’ or ‘I’m totally done complaining now’ but, with regard to the tomatoes, I’m not quite there yet. Almost but not quite.

At the end of it all I have 20 pints and 3 quarts of tomatoes. I only broke 1 jar and only almost blew the house up once. That a success, right?

The thing about it was that I knew that I had too many jars to process in a single pot so I got the other one down and got them both going. The problem is that I only have one “power” burner. That’s the best burner. The stove might as well only have the single burner for all the use the other three get. So I put the other pot on one of the other burners but somehow it’s smaller or something so that pots always seem to boil over and put out the flame. It was something less than 20 minutes before I could smell the gas all the way in the living room but I don’t know exactly how long. I mean who’s going to watch pots for over an hour? Nothing like trying to air out your kitchen with stiflingly hot and stagnant air from the great outdoors.

Anyway, it got done. I think it was worth it. One Straw sells their cases of tomatoes $25. The cases hold about 40 pounds of tomatoes. I made dinner one night, put up 26 pints and had a few tomatoes left over for salad. Each pint is like a small can of tomatoes which is what I use for making a quick sauce of pasta or pizza. That’s less than $1 per “can” for local organic tomatoes. Sure, they made me want to shoot myself but I saved a couple of bucks and learned a few things along the way.

I pretty much have my whole process down to a science. Right after dinner I fill the pots and set them on the stove and load my jars into the dishwasher. Then I go up and put the baby to bed. When I come back down for Chase I turn the, now boiling, pots down to simmer and go do bedtime with her. By the time everyone is asleep the jars are clean, hot and ready for packing. Then all I have to do is crank the heat back up under the pots and set the jars in to process.

Tomorrow… jalapeno jelly and then I’m done for a while. I have all kinds of other crap to move onto. I really wanted to make Chase a new dress to wear to school next week but I tweaked my neck and I’m afraid that sitting at the machine will only aggravate it. Maybe I’ll just have to vacuum? That doesn’t sound like any fun at all.

Meet The New CEO And CIO Of Tomato Processing Corp.

2010-09-01T01:14:55Z

Chief Equipment and Icebath Officers that is. We’re elbow deep in tomatoes here but slowly digging our way out. Chase actually helped me a little before I let her loose in that bowl of ice water there.

On a separate note, I dyed my hair. Not great work but it got the job done. Now my hair is more pepper and salt than salt and pepper. And for the record, unlike the person that asked me if Chase is my granddaughter, someone at my doctor’s office asked me if Ben (the insurance policyholder) was my father. Made my $11.99 worth every penny. I mean we share the same last name but I couldn’t possible be old enough to be married. Still smiling.

I’ve sat idle long enough. Time to make the donuts.

Two For Two

2010-09-01T01:13:05Z

This must have been Avery’s two busiest days ever. She woke up earlyish this morning. So I went and got her from her crib and brought her in bed with us hoping that she’d snuggle up and sleep for another hour or so. We both dozed and after a while I heard her start to babble a little. When I opened my eyes? She smiled at me and waved. Waved! It was so awesome. Then she looked at her hand like she couldn’t quite believe it herself.

Points Of Interest (Maybe)

2010-08-29T02:17:19Z

I bought about 40 pounds of organic heirloom roma tomatoes with absolutely no plan for them. Stay tuned on that one.

Avery really really pulled herself up ALL the way to her feet ALL by herself today! Twice! And I didn’t have my camera. Not even my phone. And when I rudely commandeered the birthday girl’s dad at a birthday party to commemorate the, possibly only a big deal to me, event? Well, she wouldn’t do it again.

We cracked opened a bottle of the relish that I made a few weeks ago. It was good! Way better than store bought relish. Which is great except we’ll have to eat a lot of hot dogs to get through it all.

I’m watching Slumdog Millionaire but sort of wishing that I wasn’t. Brutal.

Nothing Is Safe

2010-08-27T00:51:36Z

Much to the big sister’s chagrin everything must now be shared. Suddenly baby’s not too small anymore. Thankfully there was enough watermelon for everybody.

We had a little bit of a last hurrah at the pool today. Chase declared it too cold for swimming but played in the sandbox for the better part of two hours. I don’t know why I’m so resistant to going to the pool sometimes. It’s pretty much the only place where she’ll play without me for any length of time. I have to try to remember that… for the next week or so anyway.

In the afternoon we played, you guessed it, babies. Although, we don’t ALWAYS play babies. Sometimes we play tinkertoys and build stuff… for the babies. Sigh.

Summer Corn

2010-08-26T00:33:53Z

Makes me feel fine? Seriously, I’m sorry I can’t help these things. I think I’d forgotten how good corn could be. We’ve eaten plenty of it this summer and it’s been good but this was GOOD. With all the birthday parties this weekend I didn’t make it to the market so we went to a teeny tiny one yesterday. There were exactly three vendors. I’ve never been to a market quite so small. But I did find everything I needed so I guess I can’t complain.

That little baby there still has nary a tooth but she doesn’t let that stop her. She figured out how to pick up cheerios today and decided that she doesn’t want to be fed anymore. Now she’s only going to feed herself. She gums the food to death like a champ. You want to see some video of Avery eating cheerios, right? You guys are so good to me.

Here’s a question for you. I bought a small box of peanuts from one of the vendors because we wanted a snack. He had about 4 small boxes under a sign that read roasted salted peanuts $1. They’re yummy. So, where do you think they came from? Did he grow them or am is he sharing his bag of planters with me?? What say you?

Thinking But Not Doing

2010-08-25T13:16:18Z

So I’ve been thinking about doing something. Writing something that is. Something that I don’t sit down and bang out on the fly. Something that is well thought out and coherent. Something that requires planning. Planning… right. So all I have to do is organize my thoughts a little. Maybe on a piece of paper with a pen. I’ve been thinking about it for about three days now and have yet to make a move. Par for the course I guess.

Meanwhile, we’re still right smack dab in the middle of baby doll madness. Chase pulled one out of a box in the basement today and demanded to have it. Of course the new baby needed a blanket to be wrapped in so she gently reminded me that I promised to make her a blanket out of some Dora fabric that I bought her as a bribe one day in the fabric department at Wal Mart. Wait, I can explain! It’s not what it sounds like… except that it is. So I told her I’d do it. She was concerned that it wouldn’t be soft enough but I introduced her to my, ahem, small collection of textiles. I could see in her eyes that she wanted to scream ‘it’s like a fabric store right in the house! And ‘Why didn’t you tell me about this before?!’.

We found a few things that we thought might work and she was picked from those choices. She chose a little piece of some off white pre-quilted stuff that I got from Freecycle. Don’t worry I’m not doing THAT anymore. I fully acknowledge that I’m the one that needs to post stuff on Freecycle, but I digress. It’s nothing fancy. It’s not even particularly cute what with the Dora’s all over it but it’s functional and she was pleased. I think i might surprise her with a little matching pillow.

Dinner And A Movie

2010-08-23T03:07:48Z

Chase has been asking for mac and cheese for the last two days. So we made a yummy baked mac and cheese for dinner. Chase requested it, helped and then ate it too! Amazing.

I thought about writing down the recipe and then scrapped that idea when I realized that it would read something like prepare the macaroni according to package directions. In the meantime and as soon as you get to the point where you realize you are too tired and lazy to make a bechamel for the cheese sauce, in a food processor, combine grated parmesan cheese, whatever cream cheese you have on hand, and the milk in the fridge leftover from lunch and blend until smooth. Well, you get the point. Not much of a recipe.

Avery’s up to a few new things. Clapping her hands and making a few new sounds. I tried to get a video but it’s so stinking hard to catch for some reason. I managed to catch about 3 seconds but somehow now her head is cut off. I’m not a video wiz.