Food Prep - Canning Tomatoes and some Red Sauce today...

Canning at 9000 ft seems to be pretty much the same as sea level, just processing a little longer (and always at 15 lb for pressure canning). Tomatoes are water bath canning, and I let them go an extra 20 minutes.

I did not get photos of every step, but I will go over the process steps...

TOOLS

Water bath pot

Spaghetti pot (I like to use to blanch with the inner strainer)

Jar picker upper (lifter I think they call it)

Bubble remover (flat long plastic tool I forgot to put in the photo ;)

Pot holders

Wide funnel for canning

Lid magnet

Ladle (for my sauce)

Sauce pan (to keep lids/seals warm)

I tend to stick with stainless as much as possible, because I know it is sterile if I boil it, and I can all sorts of things, including meats.

Prepping the Tomatoes

I just score (lightly cut an X through only the skin on the bottom), blanch (Dip in boiling water for 30 seconds - 45 sec to 1 minute at my altitude I found) - then spoon into very cold water (stops the cooking and really loosens the skins)

Slide the skin off and put tomato in a bowl

Prep Jars

Wash jars and seals in warm soapy water, rinse very well

Put jars filled with water into waterbath to Sterilize and then keep warm

Put seals into sauce pan, outside up for easy lifting

Once jars are sterile, carefully lift (with jar lifter) out of the water and dump out the water inside. Then line them up on the work surface (I lay down some towels to keep the jars from getting shocked by temp change).

Do not touch the rims or inside of the jars.

Add to each Quart jar... 1/2 teaspoon of Citric Acid (or 2 teaspoons of lemon juice)

...and 1/2 teaspoon salt (I use sea salt)

Pour some boiling water over your seals now, and after you have the tomatoes ready the seals will be ready to use...and be sure the heat is on under the water bath pot...

Next

Place the funnel into a jar, then core and quarter each tomato, and drop through the funnel into the jar, until the jar is full (leaving about an inch head space).

Again with the funnel, pour boiling water into each jar to fill...still leaving 1 inch head space.

Use bubble remover to be sure no air is trapped between tomatoes

Wipe the rim of jar carefully with a clean cloth

Without touching the inner side, use the magnetic lid lifter to take each lid out of the hot water, and position it so the seal is over the rim

Add band and screw on snugly

Use the bottle lifter to place the full jars into the water bath

Lower the rack and be sure there is at least an inch or two of water above the jars

Process

This means how long you leave the jars to boil in the water bath. Typically 45 minutes is good at sea level...if you are at a higher altitude, then look up the correct time. At 9000 ft we have to add 20 minutes, so 65 minutes...

Funny how the pot is almost as big as our little RV stove top...

Once the jars have processed for the correct time, carefully lift each out with the jar lifter, and place on a counter...on a towel is best...

Do not try to tighten the bands, and no pushing the lid bumps...let them cool naturally and you will hear the little tink sounds as they seal. I usually leave them overnight before moving them if I can...just to be sure they are completely cooled.

For Pasta Sauce

All of the same steps as above, but I do not add citric acid or more salt. And of course no extra water needs to be added...

All sauces with veggies or meat added need to be processed with pressure, but plain tomatoes or tomato sauces are good in a waterbath.

I set aside some crushed tomatoes too, which will become a Basil marinara sauce that I will can tomorrow. Tonight it is cooking :)

So there we have canning, Day 1...all the jars sealed perfectly, and by tomorrow we will have 6 quarts of tomatoes, and 8 jars of sauce.

I will continue until we have 20 quarts of tomatoes, and 8 jars each of mushroom/onion, 3 cheese, and sausage sauce. That will be enough for us for the year, and for our girls when they come 'grocery shopping' in our stored food...

Then on to pickles, green beans, beets, carrots...etc...

Thanks for reading :)

#canning #food-prep #food-storage #tomatoes