Information and discussion about canning and dehydrating tomatoes and other garden vegetables and fruits. DISCLAIMER: SOME RECIPES MAY NOT COMPLY WITH CURRENT FOOD SAFETY GUIDELINES - FOLLOW AT YOUR OWN RISK
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#31 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: wa
Posts: 3
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I'm in the middle of processing my tomatoes. I cut and heated them and after putting them thru the sieve I was going to reduce them by half before canning them. But why go to all the trouble of cooking them for a day to reduce by half? Why not put the mixture in the sieve, collect the juice (can that separately) and then take the remaining pulp and put it thru the sieve and then can that as the sauce (it would then be already thick and avoid the lengthy cooking process )? Will I be losing more flavor in the sauce if I take out the juice first? Any thoughts? Any one done this?
[Wasn't sure if this was the right place to post this, if not let me know and I'll try moving it] |
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#32 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
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You can either can it all, then it settles to half and half in the jar, with the top half looking like water. Or you can pour everything into a pitcher, put that in the fridge for a day or two, and then pour off the clear liquid. I guess it depends on how thick you like your juice.
My problem with cooking everything down in a big batch is that it takes so long, the tomatoes oxidize and turn from red to brown. My big batches of ketchup turned brown, so I added liquid smoke and called them barbeque sauce. |
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#33 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Ithaca, NY - USDA 5b
Posts: 241
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Tomato sauce usually has enough acid to keep the Ph low even when there are finely chopped peppers and onions in it. It certainly doesn't hurt to pressure can it. I pressure can everything except canned half tomatoes. Pressure canning cooks them too much for me. If I want stewed tomatoes I like to cook them that way.
Here's my methods of canning...... Hot Water Bath Canning 101: http://www.hotwiredgardens.com/pdf/C...or_Dummies.pdf Pressure Canning 101: http://www.hotwiredgardens.com/pdf/C...or_Dummies.pdf A pressure canner is the best investment a gardener can make. |
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#34 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7
Posts: 3,207
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Btw, don't use the instructions, or the gauge that comes with your canner. A weight set is better, as the gauge needs calibration yearly. The instructions with the canner are never as good as on the website. I have two Presto canners. Inexpensive but very reliable. Can't see spending lots more for the All American. The only part that might wear out on the Presto would be the rubber ring and it's cheap. It's quite easy to can tomatoes. Just follow the recipes by the letter, you don't need a pressure canner, just a boiling water pot. I use citric acid instead of lemon juice to increase pH but either one is fine, just needs to be commercial lemon juice. Some lemons ( I'm sure my weird lemon cross fits in this category) are not acidic enough to meet the guidelines. One thing that drives me nutty is that none of the canning recipes are by weight, they are all volume or, worse numbers of fruits in a batch. But, it's reassuring that there must be a huge fridge factor 1. To account for huge inaccuracies of volume or fruit size variation and 2. To dumb down the recipes for the lowest intelligence and least educated part of the American population. Keep in mind these recipes are treated to keep people safe! |
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#35 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7
Posts: 3,207
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I don't even feed my dogs chicken from the groceries anymore. I get it from a COOP that gets it straight from the butcher so that it hasn't sat days and days turning into an agar plate. For us, I grow our own, organic chicken and butcher it myself. I even have a great automatic plucker! I need to make an order of chicks soon. Not the awful white Cornish hybrids. I'm done with them. I'll do red broilers which are much hardier but still nice and meaty or give and old heirloom breed like Dorkings a try. When we move, I plan to grow all our meat, which I used to do, until I was forced to live in this godforsaken concrete desert. 12 months and counting down! I even plan to grow the dogs meat, ( beef, pigeons, chicken, pig, waterfowl, maybe quail) and hopefully supplementing with wild game scraps from a butcher. Around here, there aren't any hunters so no wild game meat processors. Last edited by Tracydr; December 5, 2012 at 11:04 PM. |
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#36 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7
Posts: 3,207
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But, this isn't meant to scare. It's still really, really easy to do things safely. Just follow the directions and don't make any changes. Also, don't blindly follow recommendations on the Internet from just any old forum. The Garden Web Harvest Forum has some canning experts that have actually gone to school and teach safe canning guidelines. There are some safe books and websites. They need to be current ( within less than about 10 years old), not your great grandmothers old recipe, other than jams and other high acidity foods. You'll start to learn how to recognize safe and unsafe sources and recipes as you educate yourself. A good place to start is the Ball Complete Or the Ball Blue Book and reading the entire NCHFP website, put out by the University of Goergia. Colorado State and Minnesota also have pretty good websites. |
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#37 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7
Posts: 3,207
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