Canning Tomato-Based Foods
Preparing for Canning
Jamie shares her prep method for tomatoes when desiring to end up with a seedless tomato paste.
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Look for a meaty tomato. The Roma tomato works beautifully because it has lots of ‘meat’, and the seeds are easily removed without the use of a strainer or sieve.
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Cut tomato and remove seeds by sliding your thumb down the seed cavities. Place in a blender and puree. Place all puree in pot, on the stove top to heat thoroughly, about 20 minutes.​
Tomato Paste and Sauce
Make sure your pureed tomatoes are steaming and heated all the way through.
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Stir, and ladle the hot, cooked tomatoes into a straining setup. For large batches, Jamie uses a large, clean muslin bag or pillow case. We used a nut bag for straining as a demo.
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The resulting ‘solid’ in the bag can be canned for paste or sauce. It’s just a matter of percentage of liquid that determines your final product.
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Simply, pack the firm tomato solids into a sterilized jar, seal with sterilized lid and band; and place in water bath for 20 minutes.
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In a water bath, jars should be submerged completely underneath the water level. Begin your timing from the point where simmering bubbles appear. Monitor your stove top heat under the pan to keep the water at a simmering boil.​
Water Bath Demonstration
The tomato ‘liquid’ can be water bathed and preserved for the purpose of re-constitution of tomato solids or, added to soups and sauces for additional flavor.
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Laurie’s sweet spot for canning tomatoes is to skip the straining, and to boil off the liquid in the pot. She then cans the resulting, thickened tomato sauce, and creates her final tomato product from the canned sauce; spaghetti sauce, catsup, tomato soup, chili soup base, etc.
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You can process all the tomato products in the same water bath.
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When doing so, jars should be submerged completely underneath the water level. Begin your 20 minute timing from the point where simmering bubbles appear. Monitor your stove top heat under the pan to keep the water at a simmering boil.​