I knew I wasn't going to be able to use them all before they went bad, so I tried canning some of them. I already used canned crushed tomatoes when I make spaghetti sauce so I thought it would be perfect to try to make these into crushed tomatoes. I looked online to see how to do it and found the National Center for Home Food Preservation. It had some good tips and instructions so I gave it a go.First I dropped the whole tomatoes in boiling water.
I left them in there until the skin split and then put them right into cold water.
Once they were cooled off enough to handle, I just slid those skins right off. I cut out the hard part at the top of the tomato and then cut it in half. I tried to get most of the seeds out, but then I got lazy toward the end, so there were still quite a few seeds in there.
Next, I put them all into a pot and heated them up while smashing them with my potato masher. I stirred and smashed until it started boiling.
The tomatoes started falling apart as they got hot and turned into a chunky bubbling sauce. I boiled them for about five minutes. Next, I got my clean, quart size canning jars and put two tablespoons of lemon juice in each one to raise the acid level. Then I poured the hot crushed tomatoes into the jars.
I had almost enough to fill both jars. Usually, they say you're supposed to be pretty exact with canning, but I didn't have enough to be exact. I canned them anyway and I'll keep a close eye on them to make sure they stay ok. I pressure canned the tomatoes at 10 lbs of pressure for 15 minutes and let them cool.
I can't wait to try these out next time I make spaghetti sauce. It really didn't take much time and I'm hoping the flavor is good too.If you do not have a pressure canner, I would recommend looking into getting one. It's great for preserving the harvest from your garden and you don't need electricity to keep it in good shape. I'm hoping we get lots of tomatoes this year, so I can keep a lot of jars of crushed tomatoes on hand.
Really good tutorial!
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