#canning tomatoes

[gargelyfloof118]

I got 20 1/2 pints of crushed tomatoes processed today!

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

Canning instructions always say to put your tomatoes (or peaches, or whatever) in an ice water bath after blanching, to shock them so they're easier to peel. Idk about you, but I don't have that much ice. I barely have enough bowls and counter to contain all the tomatoes!

Really, though, just running them under cool water is enough. Put a batch in the boiling water, however many the pot will hold, until the skins begin to split (about a minute, or less), then into an empty bowl. Put that under the tap and run cold water into it while you get the next batch into the hot water. That'll cool them enough to handle by the time the next ones need to come out of the boiling water, and they'll peel just fine. Then cooled tomatoes into a bowl to wait, next tomatoes in to cool, more tomatoes into the hot water, and so on. It's a production line; keep it rolling.

[ohitsaunicorn]

 Now that christmas is over and presents have been opened I can share. Commissioned as a Xmas present by @frostindustries , thank you, I’ve never had to look up “canning tomatoes”, even if it’s not the most bizarre thing to google I still had a good laugh.

[gargelyfloof118]

So far, I have successfully canned 23 jars of tomato sauce this season!!

I actually feel on top of it for once!

[gargelyfloof118]

Another 37 pounds of tomatoes being processed. This batch made at least 10 liters of liquid before reducing with a bonus extra large mixing bowl full of 1 pound beefsteak tomatoes.

There's still even more out there!! Yikes!!

[gargelyfloof118]

Looks gross but smells amazing! Green tomato chow chow is salted and resting in the refrigerator to help suck out some excess moisture before canning. I never would have learned about this without y'all!

Can't wait to try it when it's done

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

The first step to tomato canning, after tomato acquisition, is sorting. If you're buying tomatoes in quantity, and paying a lower-than-retail price as a result, there's gonna be some variability to the quality, ie some of the tomatoes will be underripe, some will be fine sitting around for a few days, and some will have problems that need to be addressed right now or they'll spoil, like bruises, mold, or cracks.

The ones on the island range from "needs attention now" to "ripe and ready to go but not urgent", ranked by urgency on how far they are from the stove. Everything on the table I'm gonna let ripen for at least a day before I start on them. I've got more ripening than urgent this time - good tomato quality in this batch.

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

These German Johnsons are really pretty this time.