In past years, I have had tomatoes coming out of my ears. I don’t have a lot of tomatoes this year, unfortunately. But I do hope to gather enough in the next couple of days to can some crushed tomatoes. I love crushed tomatoes primarily for Taco Soup, but these tomatoes are also a great base for all kinds of sauces. Taco Soup is one of my go-to recipes for busy fall nights. Everyone loves it and that makes Mama happy.
When I first started canning tomatoes, it was a long and drawn out process. First, I washed all the tomatoes and cut off the blossom end and stem end. Then I blanched the tomatoes in boiling water and removed the skin. Then I removed the seeds (and half the tomato). Then I boiled what was left. And finally, I canned the crushed tomatoes in my water-bath canner.
When I was in Missouri at my parents’ house a couple weeks ago, I helped my mom can her tomatoes. Last year I developed a new procedure for canning crushed tomatoes and I taught my mom. Here’s what we did:
First, we washed the tomatoes and cut off the bad spots.
Then, we skipped two of the most time consuming steps – blanching and removing seeds. Instead, we put the tomatoes in the food processor and pureed them – skin, seeds, and all! It yields a lot more this way because we didn’t throw away half the tomato.
Next, we boiled them in a big pot on the stove for 2-3 hours, until they were reduced and thickened.
After we were happy with their consistency, we ladled them into sanitized jars, added 2 TBS bottled lemon juice per quart to protect against botulism, and processed them. My mom uses a pressure canner. She processed her quarts for 15 minutes. I use a water-bath canner and it takes quite a lot longer – 45 minutes for quarts according to my Ball Blue Book of Preserving
In my experience, Roma tomatoes produce the best stewed tomatoes because they are less watery than other varieties. This year I planted primarily Roma tomatoes, but apparently, I did not plant enough. I’m just not getting the amount I usually do. Live and learn, eh? Next year, my garden is going to be 4 times the size it is this year…and I will be canning crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, salsa, sauce, all kinds of stuff. Can’t wait.
Do you grow tomatoes? What do you do with the bounty? This recipe is shared at Ultimate Recipe Swap; Frugally Sustainable; Foy Update;
About Michelle
Welcome! I'm Michelle and I'm glad you're here. Simplify, Live, Love is a blog about simple life in rural Iowa. We are a self-employed, frugal, green, mostly homeschooling family of 6 working to go off the grid on a modern day homestead in Eastern Iowa. Please subscribe for gardening tips, green living hints, recipes, fun giveaways, and frugal ideas. Thanks for stopping by.
I just cut the end out and then cut them in half and put them in a huge pot and cook away. Slowly the skin comes off most of them and I just pick them out of the pot. I don’t get all crazy about this because after I add some spices and let it cook for about an hour and a half or so I use my immersion blender and mix it all up. The first time I made tomato sauce I squeezed out the seeds but I realized that was a huge waste! I love that you mix it up first.
I have been doing lots of crushed tomatoes and some sauce, both regular sauce and spaghetti sauce. I usually do salsa but I still have some left from last year so I haven’t gotten to it yet. Hopefully, I will get some done in the next few weeks because I have several recipes that call for some in it and I don’t really like to make fresh for the recipes.
The heat earlier in the summer, really did a number on my tomatoes, so after one round, I have had to buy them at the farmer’s market.
My kitchen would simply get too hot doing all that canning now so I freeze my tomato bounty.
Simple slow cooker sauce:
1 onion
2-3 garlic cloves
2 peel carrots
stem-end removed tomatoes cut in quarters to fill a large crockpot
olive oil poured over the veggies (.25 cup?)
Cook on low until your husband says “What is that wonderful smell?” (8 hours or so) and then remove the cover to cover for another hour or two. Cool, puree with an immersion blender and freeze.
Yum! I have frozen sauce before too. I do that in smaller quantities – usually from sauce I make with my crushed tomatoes. Thanks for sharing your recipe. It looks great and the carrots add sweetness without sugar!
I have done the same too! I have a Vita Mix, so it really blends them up well. The last few years I haven’t been able to grow nearly as many tomatoes, so I have canned them whole, (skins off) so I can use them for whatever we need. They seem to taste fresher that way. I may just can some with the skins on and then puree them in my Vita Mix before cooking. That would be a time saver as well. Good post! It’s great to see so many people canning!
I don’t blanch my tomatoes either, though I do squeeze the seeds out. Usually, I collect them in gallon bags in the freezer and then can 5 gallon bags at a time.
Okay if you are truly lazy you will buy a stick blender aka immersion blender and then you won’t even have to do batches in the food processor, you can just do it all in one pot! That’s what I do! However, then I add the step of running it through the food mill to get out any seeds and skin. Although now you are making me question whether I should bother doing that…
Foy
Well, I guess the truly lazy person will just buy Ragu…
I don’t have an immersion blender but if I did, I would try it that way! I don’t mind the seeds and the skin gets shredded when I run my tomatoes in the food processor! So if the immersion blender does as good a job as the food processor, I probably wouldn’t run it through my food mill. Win-win!
Looks great!
I like to take off the skins… though it does take time. Tomato skin holds elements that can aggravate arthritis…. plus they end up stuck in my teeth somehow, even after pureeing.
To save even MORE time: buy an immersion blender! you wn’t have to dirty a separate device and you can combine the pureeing and boiling to the same step. Ah, look like Foy beat me to that recommendation. You can get an immersion blender pretty cheaply, and you’ll wonder how you ever lived and made soup, mashed potatoes or sauce without one!
Thanks for linking up to the hop!
I do mine just like you only I use one of those high powered blender, similar to the Vitamix. It makes doing tomatoes a snap. Sometimes we puree a little celery also, add a dash of S&P, to make tomato juice and of course the lemon juice in the bottom of the jar to be sure it is acidic enough for the water bath canner. Don’t let the tomato puree and celery puree boil, just simmer until it cooks down a bit..about 20 minutes. Put in jars and proceed as you said.
Interesting! I put my lemon juice on the top. And I do boil my sauce. Seems to make it less watery. Not as big a deal when I’m working romas, but other tomatoes cause me problems sometimes.
Thanks for commenting!