I have little patience with scalding and peeling tomatoes before canning. So I have developed this system in which the trimmed and salted tomatoes are brought to a boil before placing in the Mason jars. This allows for even, confident and thorough heating of the fruit.
If the near-boiling fruit is then immediately placed in Mason jars and transferred to a canner with boiling water, the amount of time necessary for canning can be reduced to 15 minutes as opposed to the hour that many protocols specify.
Note that one must use tomatoes with normal acidity for this streamlined process. Low acid tomatoes will require longer processing.
The minimal heating time and the retention of the skin preserves more of the richness of the tomato flavor.
The one additional requirement is that you must blend the canned stewed tomatoes before using so that you do not get skins in your sauce which some might find offensive.
Equipment
Sharp pairing knife
dish tubs to recieve trimmed tomatoes and trimmings
Balance to weight cut tomatoes
non-aluminum pot in which to weigh trimmed tomatoes
Stainless steel pot, at least 2.5 gallons with thick aluminum pad on the
bottom to disperse the heat (reduce the risk of burning)
2 cup measure to dip stewed tomatoes
gloves
canning funnel
glass baking dish
seven clean flawless narrow mouthed Mason jars
seven Pristine domes and rims for the jars
Canner with canner rack and lid
Good heat source (I often do this on a propane stove outdoors since
Dish towel
Ingredients
At least 16 pounds of fresh fully ripe tomatoes. I only can Roma tomatoes because they have excellent flesh and flavor, and are more resistant to rot in the garden.
Tomatoes often come on during the most intense heat of the summer…
Directions
Set up your processing station as shown: a) washed fresh tomatoes b) a cutting board set so that the trimmed and cut tomatoes go forward, the trimmings (compost) to the right (these will go to our chickens…) c) the trimmed and cut tomatoes are weighed in a large non-aluminum pot d) 1 teaspoon of salt is added for every two pounds of tomatoes (1 tsp/quart) e) The salted trimmed tomatoes are brought to a boil in a large stainless steel pot.
Eight pounds of tomatoes gets four teaspoonfuls of salt.
The appropriately salted trimmed tomatoes are added to a large stainless steep pot.
The salted tomatoes are brought to a boil with much stirring to prevent burning.
The tomatoes are now boiling (100 C). They are softened and easily dipped out in the next step.
Dip out the boiling hot stewed tomatoes and fill one quart narrow mouthed jars. Note that I am wearing a glove, and the Mason jar is placed in a glass baking dish to catch any spills. Immediately cover the filled jar with pristine dome tops (any scratches will corrode from the acidity of the tomatoes.
Place the filled Mason jars in a canner rack with the lids snug but not tight.
Meanwhile, have a canner half filled with water, and bring to a boil.
CAREFULLY lower seven quart Mason jars filled with hot stewed tomatoes to the half way position. (The jar rack has bends which allow this). Continue heating the water in the canner until it is a rolling boil.
CAREFULLY lower the jars into the boiling water. The jar lids should be covered by boiling water. If you start with tomatoes that are near boiling, and lower into boiling water, you may process for 15 minutes in rolling boiling water. This shortened time is possible because tomatoes are acid, and you already brought them to a boil immediately before you filled the jars and immediately transferred them to the boiling water bath.
After 15 minutes, CAEREFULLY transfer the processed jars to a clean towel. Snug down the rims so they will seal as the jars cool. All the dome tops should indent to show that they have sealed. Remove the rims and wipe off any tomato residue that might have leaked out. Replace the rims. Any jars that do not indent should be used within a few weeks.
Because the skins were not removed from the tomatoes, they need to be dealt with before consuming. To do this, you must have a blender which has a screw fitting which will adapt to a narrow-mouthed Mason jar. As shown, remove the rim and dome top, and place the rubber gasket, the blades and the screw rim on the jar.
Tighten the rim so rubber gasket and blades form a tight seal.
Blend for 30 seconds to blend the skins and seeds.
The resulting blended tomato puree (more like thick tomato juice) can be used for drinking, tomato sauces, etc. I suspect that you will find that home grown tomatoes canned in this way have a much richer flavor that commercial tomatoes canned in metal cans.
David Fankhauser 