Canning Local

Putting your produce into production

How to can tomatoes

Photo credit hamletnc.

The red glorious bounty of summer buries gardeners in baskets of tomatoes. With home canning techniques, you can preserve all those tomatoes safely and enjoy their wonderful qualities long past the withering of the vines.

Nothing quite replaces a sliced garden fresh tomato on a summer salad, but by canning tomatoes you can use your homegrown fruits to prepare delicious sauces, soups, and casseroles that call for tomatoes. You can start benefiting from your bumper crops of tomatoes instead of giving away bags of them to friends and co-workers until they can’t eat another one.

What you need to know about canning tomatoes:

Water bath or pressure canner? You can use either a water bath canner or a pressure canner. The water bath canner is affordable and easy to use, but the pressure canner produces a canned tomato product that retains more nutritional value and possesses a noticeably higher quality. This results mostly from the shorter processing times possible with the pressure canner due to its higher temperatures. When canning tomatoes in a water bath canner, you need to use longer processing times, which cooks out more of the nutrients. Even so, tomatoes canned with the water bath process remain good but just not quite as good as tomatoes processed in the pressure canner. Essentially, if you plan on growing lots of tomatoes and preserving them for home use, then investing in a pressure canner would be recommended.

Tomato seeds. Tomatoes have many seeds and removing them before canning the tomatoes is labor intensive. It is acceptable to leave the seeds in the tomatoes. This is the only thing to do when you are canning the tomatoes whole. You can always remove the seeds later with a food mill when you are cooking with the tomatoes. Or, you can ignore the seeds and leave them in. If you want to remove seeds prior to canning, you can cut the tomatoes in half and scrape out the seeds. This gets most of them out, but takes a long time. Or, you can put the tomatoes through a food mill and can them as crushed tomatoes or even prepare a seasoned spaghetti sauce and can it. For processing large amounts of tomatoes, it is best to can them whole and deal with the seeds as you use each jar or ignore the seeds. The seeds do not negatively influence the product or the canning process.

How to select fruit. Only can tomatoes that are fresh, undamaged, and disease free. Vine ripened is best, but never can tomatoes from dead or dying vines.

Increasing the acidity. High acid levels in fruits help the food preservation process. When canning tomatoes, you will want to add a high acid substance to boost the acidity.

Choose from:

Bottled lemon juice

Pint jar: add 1 Tablespoon

Quart jar: add 2 Tablespoons

Citric acid

Pint jar: add 1/4 teaspoon

Quart jar: add 1/2 teaspoon

Vinegar (5% acidity)

Pint jar: add 2 Tablespoons

Quart jar: add 4 Tablespoons

Salt: You can add some salt to each jar before canning if you want to. Just be sure to use salt without added iodine. Or you can wait to add salt when you are cooking with the tomatoes later. 

Skinning tomatoes. You will need to remove the skins from all tomatoes. Skins are removed by placing tomatoes in boiling water for about 1 minute until skins split and then placing them in cold water. When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, slip the skins off.

Several approaches are commonly used to prepare tomatoes for canning. The variations arise from how the tomatoes are specifically prepared before placing in jars. All methods work well.

Canning crushed tomatoes

For either pint or quart jars.

Skin the tomatoes and cut them into quarters. Crush about 3 cups of tomatoes in a large pot with a potato masher and bring them to a boil while stirring. Gradually add the rest of the quartered tomatoes and keep stirring. After all tomatoes are in the pot, boil gently for 5 more minutes.

To each sterilized canning jar, add your selected acidification product (lemon juice, citric, acid, or vinegar), salt if desired, and then fill jars with hot tomatoes. Leave 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe jar rims and attach lids and bands.

Water bath canner processing times

Pints – 35 minutes (40 minutes above 1,000 feet elevation)

Quarts – 45 minutes (50 minutes above 1,000 feet elevation)

Pressure canner processing times

(Always refer to directions for your pressure canner first. Times and pressures presented here are typical.)

Pints – 20 minutes at 6 pounds pressure or 15 minutes at 11 pounds pressure

Quarts – same as for pints

Canning whole tomatoes

For pint or quart jars.

Canned whole tomatoes are used whenever a recipe calls for stewed tomatoes. The whole tomatoes can also easily be mashed and cooked down to make sauces.

Skin the tomatoes and remove the stem cores.

Add your acidification agent (lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar) to sterilized canning jars.

Hot pack method

Put skinned tomatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a gentle boil for 5 minutes. Ladle hot tomatoes into prepared sterilized jars and then add cooking liquid. Leave 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe clean rims of jars and put on lids and bands.

Water bath canner processing times

Pints – 40 minutes (45 minutes above 1,000 feet elevation)

Quarts – 45 minutes (50 minutes above 1,000 feet elevation)

Pressure canner processing times

(Always refer to directions for your pressure canner first. These times and pressures presented here are typical.)

Pints – 15 minutes at 6 pounds pressure or 10 minutes at 11 pounds pressure

Quarts – same as for pints

Raw pack method without added liquid

The raw pack method has appeal because it involves less preparation time and you do not have to work with hot liquid and hot jars. However, this method does require longer processing times in the canner.

Pack skinned tomatoes into sterilized jars prepared with acid booster. Press them into the jars so that juice squeezes out and fills in the gaps between tomatoes. Leave 1/2 inch headspace, wipe clean jar rims, and attach lids and bands.

Water bath canner processing times

Pints – 85 minutes (90 minutes above 1,000 feet elevation)

Quarts – 85 minutes (90 minutes above 1,000 feet elevation)

Pressure canner processing times

(Always refer to directions for your pressure canner first. These times and pressures presented here are typical.)

Pints – 40 minutes at 6 pounds pressure or 25 minutes at 11 pounds pressure

Quarts – same as for pints

With all methods for canning tomatoes, you must remove the jars from canner and let them cool on a towel in a space free from drafts. Leave the jars undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours. Then check to make sure jars are sealed. Remove bands, wipe clean lids and jars and store in cupboard for up to one year. If a jar does not seal, put it in the refrigerator and use it within a few days.

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Sincerely, Tracy Falbe