They are my go-to canned tomato. Good lord. The canning process makes them shelf stable. We process in a presser caner and follow instructions for presser and time. I’ve never canned whole tomatoes before, so I’ll use your process and let you know how it goes. I hope it’s not too much of a question These tomatoes are wonderful, they are salty but yet not vinegary at all! Chop them up and cook them with peppers, onions and a few seasonings to quickly turn them into stewed tomatoes; or cook them down to create homemade tomato sauce. Anything I should look for when I open the jars smell etc.? Did you process your jars in a boiling water bath? I’ve heard you can wrap green tomatoes in newspaper and then, around Christmas, check on them. This raw-pack method captures their best flavor. Pete’s meaning was clear. , Jamie, it has to do with the density of the contents of the jar. Preserve fresh tomatoes quickly by canning them whole. I just realized this morning that I processed my whole, peeled tomatoes for 75 minutes, not 85 minutes. Jim, if you read through some of the previous comments, this is well-covered territory. You need to add acid. This was so much easier than I thought it would be! Slip off skins. Do I need to peel the tomatoes before processing them? Quarts of whole peeled tomatoes get processed in a boiling water canner for 45 85 minutes. Doing my second round of them with tomatoes picked an hour ago from my garden!!! I would like to see more people who understand canning like that. I’d given up on home-canned tomatoes ever since I tried a friend’s mom’s jars and found that they tasted too much of vinegar and weren’t as pleasant as the cans I could buy in the store. She never added lemon juice, just salt. I filled them within a half inch of the top and placed them in a pot of boiling water with an inch of boiling water on top. Don’t forget to acidify. Hi, I just canned 7 quarts of tomatoes. https://www.bhg.com/recipes/how-to/preserving-canning/canning-tomatoes Wait…85 mins now…? I know canning intuitively from watching my mother, aunts, and grandmothers, but still, I like knowing the reasons why it’s done that way. After adding the cooled jars to the cooled water bath, bring the bath up to a rolling boil and start counting your processing time from then. I’ve found that there is simply nothing better than opening a home-canned quart of tomatoes in February – it’s like a time-warp back to August! I just did a small batch of whole tomatoes, but now I am slightly concerned. The images in those older posts are hosted by Flickr, and they appear to be down right now. 16. for each quart you plan to can After reading this post, it seemed like canning tomatoes would be […]. May be air thawed or in a glass bowl in the microwave. They do not need to be refrigerated. I plan to preserve whole roma tomatoes using your method this weekend and have a question. […] pounds! However it doesn’t seem necessary when you will use your tomatoes for sauces, etc. They should be clean, but they don’t have to be hot. Thank you in advance! Thank you for sharing your love of canning with us. Hi Marisa. I meant no offense, but I’ve been a professional chef for 30 years and have taught Sanitation and professional cooking at the college level for the last 13 years. I notice you recommend bottled lemon juice. When looking at the salsa i noticed that it is seperating, I look at all the other jars form that bactch and most of them seem to be doing the same thing. This is regarding a recipe I came across in an Italian cook book. Hi Marisa! Note that she has updated her processing […]. Continue adding tomatoes, until 1/2-inch of head space remains. However the cook procedures suggest when followed correctly actually do kill the spores (C. Dificulus is the basis normally). The picture with you packing next to the raw meat is a little unsettling and would be a violation under commercial sanitation code. If you call Ball, I’m fairly certain that they will tell you to throw them out. Those are the not so pretty ones that the farmer can’t sell for top dollars. I have my work cut out doing pickles. My question is, what do you use canned whole tomatoes for? Jeff, did you add the required acid to the jars? It is typically recommended for fragile foods that will degrade in the heat of boiling water. Made a few small batches last night and I have to say the jars look BEAUTIFUL! When it comes time to make sauce, I take the bags out of the freezer – as the tomatoes thaw, the skins pop right off. Use one teaspoon for quarts, and 1/2 tsp for each pint. Wants more this year.). Can’t believe I’d made this rookie mistake! What do you think? I find that I’m able to get three romas into a pint jar and six into a quart. I thought I read somewhere here that they have less acidity than red ones. They look great. This was my first season canning and I am so mad that I mixed the recipe up for tomatoes in water and tomatoes in own juice very disappointed. As long as the proper amount of acid went into the jars, the worst thing that can happen is that a jar or two could experience some bacteria growth and spoil. Not to mention an overload of tomatoes–which I’ve turned into whole canned tomatoes and this awesome tomato sauce I wrote about last year. 9. I will probably give ball canning a call on monday and see what they say to. I’m a new canner, and I’m about to try this. However, if some time has elapsed and the lid wiggles in and out and makes a popping sound, that means the jar didn’t seal and isn’t shelf stable. I was reading that it may have been due to the uncooked/headed contents being placed in boiling water? Love your site, very helpful with great explanation. Hi, I love your site. I love this site. Have you ever tried to can tomato sauce without peeling the tomatoes? Just two or three of the above would be enough to stop most pathogens, so even if someone does something wrong or uses a flawed method, chances are they will still be okay. Is this necessary to sterilize, or get a good seal? Thanks for challenging that notion and showing me how to responsibly manage my back yard harvest. Yay! After that, I wipe the rims, apply my lids (carefully simmered for 10 minutes at around 180 degrees), screw on the rings and lower the jars into the heated boiling water canner (remembering to use a rack so that the jars aren’t resting on the bottom of the pot).