I have successfully made several batches of peach jam (and one peach-blueberry jam) thanks to the abundant crop on our peach tree and assistance of a county fair-placed-jam-making friend. As she demonstrated, turning the jars upside-down for 5min after filling was enough to seal them–I heard the “pop!” of each jar soon after righting them. However, this friend said for canning peaches, I’d need a canner–thus, I made jam and not canned fruit.
Now, our tomatoes are going to town, and I’d like to can them as well. However, everything I’m reading says they require a hot water bath for sealing to be safe. I am not interested in poisoning my family, so I want to do right–but don’t own a canner. My home preserving book said a canner is basically just a deep pot, sooooo…could I conceivably do the hot water bath in a deep pasta pot? The jars would sit on the bottom, rather than in a rack, but I’d make sure they will be covered with at least 2" of water. Removing them will be hot fun, but meh, I can manage.
Is that an acceptable alternate approach, or must I have a canner?
The one thing I’d be concerned about is the jars sitting on the bottom of the pan – they might break. Do you have any kind of rack that would keep the jars off the bottom – something that lifts the jars an inch or so? If your pot is big enough, maybe an inverted aluminum pie pan would work.
A basic canning pot with a rack isn’t terribly expensive – $25-$30 should get you the big pot and a rack. It’s the best food investment I’ve ever made.
Yes, a pasta pot will work. It’s made of better metal than the cheap canning pots, which are just larger, that’s all. Like the others said, find a rack. See what the price is at your local hardware store for a big cheap pot, now that you’re getting into canning. It’s a lot of messy fun. Make sure you’re following modern recipes; older recipes may be unsafe.
My canning pot is just a large, cheap spatter ware affair with a round cooling rack on the bottom supported by some extra canning jar rings. Works great. I made a couple of batches of jam last weekend.
Man, I really miss having home canned tomatoes around. Maybe it’s time for a trip to the Farmer’s Market.
Definitely, go for it with a big pot. I don’t have a formal “water canner” pot and have canned jam, jelly, pickles, and salsa using my large stock pot.
I have canned spaghetti sauce many times with nothing but a large covered pot. I am still alive to tell you about it. I may be wrong, but aren’t acidic foods like tomato based sauces pretty immune to botulism?
Mostly correct. From the University of Minnesota;
“Researchers at USDA and at the University of Minnesota have found that most underripe to ripe, cooked tomatoes have a pH below 4.6. Unfortunately, a few varieties may have a pH above or close to 4.6. These include Ace, Ace 55VF, Beefmaster Hybrid, Big Early Hybrid, Big Girl, Big Set, Burpee VF Hybrid, Cal Ace, Delicious, Fireball, Garden State, Royal Chico, and San Marzano. Some of these are grown for commercial purposes and are not found in home gardens. However, safely canning these varieties requires additional acid for water bath processing or a pressure canning process similar to low acid vegetables.”
So most tomatoes yes. Some tomatoes need either supplemental acid or pressure canning for absolute safety.
You can also freeze whole fresh tomatoes real easily.
Just dunk them in boiling water, take them out, and freeze. Then take them out in winter, slice them and put them on your salad. Not as good as fresh tomatoes, but in January in Minnesota they are good enough – and certainly more tasty than the so-called tomatoes sold in the stores.
You can also freeze non-whole ones. Take sliced, cooed tomatoes, together with fresh green peppers, onions, etc., cool, and freeze in a freezer bag. Then in winter, cook hamburger & pasta, and add a thawed bag of this ‘hotdish mix’ – almost like a summertime dish in mid-winter – delicious!
It’s rare, but you can get botulism using your technique. Look up “canned tomatoes botulism” for examples. The way you do it is the way I’ve done it, and the way my mother does it. I recognize now that it’s not 100% safe, so I’m inclined not to do anything short of pressure canning again (or at least acidulated canning), if I ever get back into canning my own tomatoes. Just because I and you haven’t gotten ill because of it doesn’t mean it’s a smart thing to do.
Well, that talks about whole tomatoes, this was sauce. I wasn’t cold canning the sauce, it was cooked first, boiled for a time in the pot, then added to sterilized ball jars then boiled for another hour in the canning bath.
Yea, I just use an old wide, and deep, pressure cooker pot and a tall and narrow stock pot- the two biggest pots that I have- to can pickles, tomatoes, salsa, etc. I don’t have a rack, and just use tongs to fish the jars out.
I put mine on a cookie sheet - no blanching or anything; I even leave the skin on - and put the cookie sheet, with the tomatoes not touching, in the freezer. Once they’re frozen solid, I put them in a large freezer bag and back into the freezer. The reason I freeze them on the cookie sheet first is that way they are less likely to stick together and it makes it a little easier to separate however many I want from the rest in the bag.
They work great in chili and other sauces, soups, and stews. The skin cooks down and, I believe, probably adds extra fiber.
You can chop them before freezing. I might do some like that this year and if I do I will freeze them on a cookie sheet before bagging, too.
I don’t know about frozen ones working on salads, though.
The general rules should apply throughout regardless. However, I see you’ve boiled them in the sterilized Ball jars for an hour, so that should be good, as far as I know.
If you don’t want to spring for a canning rack, just put extra jar rings in the bottom of your pasta pot and then put a cake/cookie cooling rack on top. Works for me.