Can It: Stewed Tomatoes

Today I embarked on a new journey: canning! Well, technically I've made jam before but today we're canning this gorgeous crop of tomatoes I plucked from the garden today into stewed tomatoes. We have 3 different types of heirlooms, 2 kinds of cherry, Roma and some other kind of German heritage tomato whose name escapes me right now. Seriously, there's probably a good 8 pounds of tomatoes on the kitchen table right now. I'm surprised the heirloom plants didn't fall over, each one is so heavy!

I'm so excited!

I am also are using this beauty you see right there, our very first pressure canner. It's the little things (or maybe weird..? I'll get back to you on that one) that excite me. Seriously..this is coming from the girl who bought herself a crock pot with her birthday money and was excited about it. But I digress..

While the jars, lids and rings were happily sanitizing away in the dishwasher, I prepped and cleaned both sides of the sink (filling one side with cold water and leaving the other side empty), the pressure canner and the utensils. I kept the jars, lids and rings in the dishwasher until I was ready to use them so they stay nice and hot.

First, blanch the tomatoes, about 4 at a time, in a pot of boiling water for approx. one minute-or until the skins crack- then transferring them immediately to the pot of cold water in the sink. This is done  to stop the cooking... and so you'll be able to actually handle them without getting 3rd degree burns! Peel the skins off into the other (empty) sink and place the toms on a cutting board or bowl, something to retain all those wonderful juices!
Do this for all tomatoes. I think a normal person would use probably 20-30... Holy tomato.

 Once you've done this for all tomatoes, rough chop the toms, adding them AND the excess juices from chopping into a pot on the stove.
Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring to prevent burning on the bottom. All the recipes I looked at say to add salt, sugar, onions, celery and green peppers but since that's really for flavoring, we're just going to stick with the amazing flavor of the tomatoes because we'll be using these for so many different things in the coming year.

When the tomatoes have simmered for 10 minutes, begin transferring them to your hot jars. Make sure you have dish towels laid out on the counter, ones you don't mind getting stained, 'cause it'll get a little messy. (Turns out, the jars were cold when I was ready to pull them out of the dishwasher so I threw them into the oven on 175 for about 5 minutes.)

Using a large ladle and canning funnel, fill the quart mason jars, leaving about 1 inch of room at the top. Use a non-metallic utensil to remove air bubbles in the jars that may have formed. Then add 1 Tbs lemon juice to the top before placing the lids and rims on, securing only finger tight.

**Be careful not to touch the inside of the jars or lids with your bare hands as this can cause contamination.**



Using your handy-dandy canning tongs, place cans into the pressure canner. Use the instructions on your pressure canner.

According to our instructions, here's my really condensed, run-on sentence, version: add 3 qts boiling water to the pressure canner before placing the cans in, then secure the lid, place it over the burner on high, make sure the regulator is off, let the steam vent for about 10 minutes, place the regulator back on, wait for the valve to pop up, watch the pressure gauge until it reaches 11 pounds, drop the burner a little and set the timer for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, use the canning tongs to take them out and let them sit in an undisturbed area for about 12-24 hours. Voila!

It was a long process and I learned a lot today. I think it took about 2 hours start to finish.  Totally can't wait to try the next batch now that I know what the hell I'm doing!
All in all, it was a very successful day.
I used practically every single pot and mixing bowl in the kitchen! And I haven't even made dinner yet! At least I have the day off tomorrow, I'll postpone dishes until then.

For now, I'll just enjoy my glass of wine and listen to the fruits of our labor softly popping in the background.