Canned Whole Tomatoes
Canning whole tomatoes is a simple and rewarding process made even more so by good company. The steps involved make for great assembly-line work so get your friends together, line them up and put ‘em up!
For each quart of tomatoes:
3 pounds of plum tomatoes (such as Amish paste or Juliette)
2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice (not fresh) or ½ tsp citric acid
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
Prep tomatoes.
Have ready a cooler half-full of heavily iced water. Bring a large kettle of water to a rolling boil. Wash tomatoes and drop about six into boiling water. Boil until skins begin to loosen, about 30–60 seconds. Using a slotted spoon or spider, scoop tomatoes out of the boiling water and plunge into ice water. Repeat until all tomatoes have been blanched in this manner. Drain tomatoes. Core using a tomato corer and peel away skins with small paring knife.
Pack tomatoes.
Add lemon juice or citric acid and salt, if using, to clean, hot jars. Pack tomatoes into jars one at a time, pressing on tomatoes firmly enough to compress hollow core and release enough juice to cover tomato but not so hard that the fruit is crushed. Continue packing tomatoes in this manner, being careful to press out air pockets and leaving 1” head space. Top jar off with boiling water, leaving ½” headspace from liquid to lid.
Shelf Stable: Process, using the Boiling Water Method on page for 40 minutes. Cool, check seals and store in a cool, dark place for up to one year.