How to Can Tomatoes
Ingredients
4 pounds tomatoes
Salt
¼ cup olive oil
5-6 quart jars with lids
Directions
1. Bring a stockpot of salted water to boil.
2. Prepare an ice bath.
3. Cut a superficial X in the bottom of each tomato.
4. Place as many tomatoes as your stockpot can comfortably hold (I work in batches). Boil tomatoes until skin begins to peel away, 1-5 minutes depending on tomato size.
5. When skin peels, remove tomato with slotted spoon and place directly in ice bath.
6. The ice bath will loosen the tomato skins enough for you to swipe away. Remove tomato cores.
7. Squeeze remaining tomato “meat” over a strainer to remove seeds. You can be meticulous about it or enjoy the seeds in your canned tomatoes as I do.
8. In a large bowl smash tomato “meat” with a potato masher.
9. Place bowl contents in a large stockpot with olive oil and salt to taste. Simmer at least 1 hour before processing in jars.
To make Italian or Mexican style canned tomatoes, add whatever spices of choice to step eight. If you want to turn this recipe to pizza sauce add a few handfuls of sundried tomatoes and a Tbsp sugar to step eight, then simmer longer to create a thicker sauce.
