Canning Tomato Puree

I have always wanted to can tomatoes.  I do not know why but the thought of a sea of canned goods on the shelves of the pantry makes me happy.   I enlisted the help of a friend and together we canned tomato puree. 

Ingredients:

1 50 lb bushel Roma Tomatoes
2 deep pots - the ones you use for pasta or sauce
32 - pint canning jars with lids and screw tops or 16 - quart canning jars or a combination of the two
salt
basil
bottled lemon juice
canning pot with rack
jar lifter
canning funnel
magnetic lid lifter
head space measurer
food mill with medium to small disc

Total time: 6 hours


Here is a photo of the things you need.  Inside the pot is the canning rack which is used to place the jars into the water.

We went to Bruno's Farmstand to buy the tomotoes.  It is located just of LIE exit 69. If you are heading east, make a right at the first intersection.  If you are heading west, make a left at the first intersection go south over the LIE and it is on the right. They are not organic but they do not spray too much so I felt confident in using their products.  In this case, local prevailed over organic.  We bought a bushel of Roma Tomatoes.  You want the really ripe ones.  The redder and softer the better.  The bushel cost us $25 and weighed 53 lbs.  At less than 50 cents per pound they are well worth it. There were a few blemishes but that is to be expected when you get ripe tomatoes.   Here is how they looked when we bought them:

Bailey wanted to help as well.  She loves to eat tomatoes straight from the vine so when she saw the bushel she would not leave it.

The first step is to clean the tomatoes.  Dump them in the sink and give them a rinse.  Next, cut off the stem ends, cut off any blemishes and cut them in half.  Place them into a pot with a 1/4 inch of water to prevent burning.

 We had two large pots filled like this.  Turn it on medium-high heat and start cooking.  The tomatoes will let off a lot of water.  That is what you want.  Stir occassionally to prevent burning.  I used a potato masher to help break them down.  This took about 30- 45 minutes.  Considering the size of the pots and the amount of tomatoes, that is not too bad.  The smaller the pot, the faster it will go. You are looking to get the tomatoes to a point where the skins are falling off and they are soft.  You are going to put it through a food mill so they need to be soft.  Once they are soft, put them through the food mill.  Use the smaller discs because you want to keep the seeds out of the puree.  The larger discs will let them through.

almost there

The pot in the back is half-way.  The pot in the front is just right to put in the food mill.

Now it is time to put them through the food mill.  I use a ladle to put the tomatoes in.  This is where teamwork comes in handy, one person turns the blade while the other ladles it in.  This is the worst part.  It takes time and there is a lot of puree to make.  Take turns if you have to.

Put the food mill over a bowl and keep turning it.  Once the bowl fills up, place the contents into a large container.  This is all going to end up back in the pot you were using.  If you have another large pot, then put it in there.  We only had 2 so this is how we did it.  Make sure you scrape off the bottom of the food mill.  There is a lot of pulp there and that is what you need to make the puree.  The bowl is going to seems very liquid-y.  That is ok, once you add the pulp and keep cooking it, it gets thicker. 

 

You can see the skins are all that is left as you pass it through.  This will take several times of cleaning out the skins and seeds from the mill.  Each time we filled up the bowl, we scraped the bottom and threw out the skins.  You want to keep turning the blade until there is no liquid left.  Empty all of the bowls back into the pot and it will look like this:

 

                                                                                     

Heat the tomatoes until it gets to the thickness you like.  I wanted it to shrink down for two reasons.  First, the thicker it is the fewer jars you use.  Second, the longer I cook it now the easier it is to make sauce later.    We cooked for about one hour.  Here is what it looked like when we put it in the jars:

Now it is time to can. Boil the water in your canning pot.  You need to prepare the jars.  You can boil them in the canning pot or run them through the dishwasher on the sanitize cycle.  I boil the jars for 10 minutes.  But if you use the dishwasher, make sure you time it so that they are done around the time you are ready to start filling them.  You want them to be hot when you fill them.  Place the lids and screw tops in a smaller pot and heat them to just boiling.  If you rapid boil the lids you can affect the wax on the lid and you may not get a seal.  Once the jars were removed from the boiling water, we placed in a 1/4 teaspoon of salt to each pint jar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the quart jars.   Also added 2 Tablespoons of bottled lemon juice into the the quart jars and 1 Tablespoon of bottled lemon juice into each pint jar.  We also added one basil leaf to each pint jar and 2 to each quart jar.  Be careful not to touch the inside of the jars with your hands.  Cleanliness is important to food safety when canning.  I place the funnel, jar lifter, magnetic lifter and headspace measurer into the water with the jars for a minute or so to clean them too.  Don't leave them in too long or you will melt the plastic.

                                              

                                                                     

Fill the jars with tomato puree using the funnel and leave 1/2 inch headspace.  If you spill anything on the rims of the jars make sure to clean it off.  This can affect the seal.  Use the magnetic lid lifter to remve the lids and rings from the smaller pot.  Place the lids on the jars and screw on the rings.  Do not touch the inside of the lids.  You do not want to contaminate the jars.  Do not tighten them too much - just halfway.  Place each jar into the canner right side up using the jar lifter.  Be careful that the jars do not fall over.  Pints take 35 minutes and quarts take 40 minutes.   

After they are done, remove them using the jar lifter and place them upside down.  You can tighten the lids now.  They should start making a popping sound.  This means they are sealed.  Let them sit like this for one day in a draft free area. 

After a day check them to make sure they have sealed.  You will know by pushing on the lid.  If it does not push in then it is done.  You can turn them right side up at this point.  If it moves in when you push, place the jar into the fridge and use it within the week.  Label and date them.  You are all done! 

 

A few tips:

Look for sales on the canning jars, lids and screw tops starting in the spring.  Whenever you see them on sale pick them up.  You can save a few bucks per case this way and it all adds up. 

Once you have the jars you can reuse them every year so long as they do not break.  You MUST use new lids each year but the screw top rings are reusable as well. 

I buy my jars at: Agway (they have an online flyer to check out the sales); Ace Hardware (their flyer comes in the Purple Pack in your Thursday mail); and Walmart (jars are usually a seasonal item there so get them when you find them).  I bought a case of 12 pint jars at Walmart for $6 last weekend. 

Canning supplies like the pot, rack, lids and lifters can also be found at the above stores, sometimes in a kit that includes all of them for around $20.  I found mine at Walmart in October 2009 in the clearance area for $9.