Best Way To Can Roma Tomatoes

Anyone know what is the best way to can roma tomatoes?

Roma Tomatoes are Italian heirlooms. They are great for sauce and canning.

You can do this two ways: (I'm getting my info from "Putting Food By" which is essentially the FDA canning book. You could get it really cheap on ebay.

Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Cut out the hard green or white stem pith. Put all the tomatoes into a big big pot, stainless steel is best. Add a very little water, as the tomatoes will make their own juice.

Put over medium heat, or better still, put one stainless steel pot into another one, and fill the outside one with water, like a huge double boiler.

Heat until all the tomatoes are very hot, and softened.

(Meanwhile) you have scrubbed and sterilized a sufficient number of glass canning jars. You must sterilze these jars, as you cannot be sure that today's Roma's have sufficient acid to preserve themselves, unlike grandma's Romas.

By sterlizing, I mean bringing to a boil in yet another stainless steel pot.

SO! The tomatoes are hot, the jars are inverted on clean paper towels, your lids are hot, and the utinsels are also very clean and very hot.

Use the wide mouth quart jars, and get a canning funnel with a wide mouth.

You have yet another container ready, about half full of not quite boiling water. You have a rack on the bottom of this pot, so the jars do not come in contact with the stove flame. THIS CONTAINER IS TALL ENOUGH TO ALLOW FOR A FULL SIX INCHES OF REALLY BOILING WATER TO COVER THE JARS. Measure it! (This is really really important!)

Flip over a jar, insert the funnel,

Add a teaspoon (splash) of vinegar, and a half teaspoon of salt to the bottom of the jar. This will help to correct the acidity of the tomatoes

ladle the tomatoes in until you have a half inch space at the top of the jar. Wipe down the lip of the jar with a damp clean corner of a paper towel, place the hot lid on it, and put the ring on the jar, and hand tighten only. but tight!

Using canning tongs, put that jar into the middle of the pot with hot water. Start some more hot water in another pot, to fill up the pot when you are done.

Continue filling the jars, until your canning pot is full.

Add the extra boiling water, if you need to, and be sure that you have six inches of water over the tomato jars.

Turn up the heat, and wait until you have achieved a full rolling boil. Not a simmer...a bubbling roilling boil. Let that go, that way, for 3o minutes.

30 minutes. While you clean up the mess in the kitchen.

At 30 minutes, using the tongs, take the jars out of the pot )turn off the flame) and set them on some clean paper towels on a table.

Listen for a "ping!" That will be the jar sealing. And the lid will have a depression in the middle.

Go to bed.

The next morning, wipe the jars down with a damp paper towel, and use a marker to label and date them.

Put them on the shelf where you can look at them and be proud and accomplished!

Good Girl!

You can also buy a contraption called a Victorino, or Sqeezo something (Lehmans's or the local Morman store)

You can put the tomatoes thru this, and it takes out the skin and the seeds, but you get the rest, and then you proceed as I have described, altho we always used to let the double boiler work overnight, and there would be a clear fluid at the top, delicious, which we could siphon off and drink. It made the sauce thicker.


OR....you can slice the tomatoes, put them in your solar powered food dryer, for a day or so, and then baggie them up and put them in your solar powered freezer.

Like I do now.

Uses far less Ibuprofen for the back. also.

Good luck!

Been there, done that, feel sooo old!

I forgot to say....you can also mash them all up....and make wine.

It's like V-8 on steroids.

Thank you very much. I think I may consider dehydrating them. I guess I could powder them when dry and make a paste huh? It sounds a lot easier that way. I appreciate your help.

You can also pressure can tomatoes. As the poster above mentioned, there is no gurantee that today's tomatoes have the acidity to preserve themselves. From The National Center for Home Food Preservation:

How do I? ...Can Tomatoes
Selecting, Preparing and Canning Tomatoes
Introduction

Quality: Select only disease-free, preferably vine-ripened, firm fruit for canning.

Caution: Do not can tomatoes from dead or frost-killed vines. Green tomatoes are more acidic than ripened fruit and can be canned safely with any of the following recommendations.

Acidification: To ensure safe acidity in whole, crushed, or juiced tomatoes, add two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per quart of tomatoes. For pints, use one tablespoon bottled lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon citric acid. Acid can be added directly to the jars before filling with product. Add sugar to offset acid taste, if desired. Four tablespoons of a 5 percent acidity vinegar per quart may be used instead of lemon juice or citric acid. However, vinegar may cause undesirable flavor changes.

Recommendation: Use of a pressure canner will result in higher quality and more nutritious canned tomato products. If your pressure canner cannot be operated above 15 PSI, select a process time at a lower pressure.

If a procedure from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning for canning tomatoes offers both boiling water and pressure canning options, all steps in the preparation ("Procedure") are still required even if the pressure processing option is chosen. This includes acidification. The boiling water and pressure alternatives are equal processes with different time/temperature combinations calculated for these products.

This document was adapted from the "Complete Guide to Home Canning," Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539, USDA, revised 1994.

Reviewed June 2006.

Click to expand...

I also found this table that shows the times & process for both WBC & PC.

HTH

BTW- v-8 on steroids- HAHA!!!

I bought Romas esp for dehydrating. Yesterday I made with dried tomato powder (the tomatoes I dehydrated about 3 yrs ago and kept in fridge) Anyway, 3 oz of cream cheese, abit of tomato powder, abit of mayo and bacon bits and also chives from my garden. Mixed it up and spread onto fresh bagels....yummmy