Use the abundance of summer produce to make your own Home Canned Tomatoes. You'll love having them when winter comes around.
What do you do when nature hands you the gift of beautifully ripe summer tomatoes? Why you get out your canner and jars and go to work.
Canning is a simple, but exacting process that is easily mastered. And opening a jar of Home Canned Tomatoes in the middle of winter is like opening a ray of summer sunshine.
I'm sure it's weird, but excessive amounts of gorgeous summer produce get me so excited. I immediately start making plans about how to preserve it and what to do with it later on.
If I have peaches, they usually wind up as preserves with some also being frozen for use in cobblers later in the year. Same with berries and other fruits.
Peas and butterbeans are always blanched, packaged, and frozen. But when I have an abundance of tomatoes, I almost always can them. I just think canning is the best way to capture that fresh summer taste. Plus, they look so nice on my pantry shelves.
Jump to:
- Review Proper Canning Procedure
- Prepare the Canning Jars, Lids, and Rings
- Prepare the Tomatoes
- Fill Prepared Jars One at a Time
- Keep the pH at the Correct Level
- Fill Jars with Prepared Tomatoes
- Clean Jar Rims and Apply the Lids
- Lower the Filled Jars into the Canner
- Process in Boiling Water
- Don't Take Shortcuts!
- Final Steps and Storage
- 📖 Recipe
Review Proper Canning Procedure
If you have never canned before, or if it has been a while since your last time canning, please review the current guidelines. You always want to make sure that you handle canned goods correctly. Improperly canned foods can really be disastrous. I"ve written a post about correct canning techniques that you mind find helpful.
Prepare the Canning Jars, Lids, and Rings
The first step in home canning tomatoes, or for any canning session, is to prepare your jars, lids, and rings and to start your canner full of water heating. Wash the jars, lids, and rings in hot soapy water.
Place the lids in a small pan with enough hot water to cover them and place it on the lowest heat setting on your stove. Put the clean jars in your canner rack and let them come up to the boil along with the water in the canner.
Prepare the Tomatoes
Then you can get on with preparing the tomatoes. Wash the tomatoes well, then peel and core them. You can leave your tomatoes whole or cut them into halves or quarters. I did quarters this time.
Fill Prepared Jars One at a Time
When all the tomatoes are prepped and ready to go, start filling your jars. The method I use for canning tomatoes is the "raw packed in their own juice" method.
The way I proceed is this. Lift the canner rack with the jars in it and hook it over the sides of the canner so that it remains elevated. Remove one jar at a time from the rack and drain the water from the jar back into the canner. Place the hot jar on a folded dish towel.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of lemon juice to each jar.
Just a note about this step, in case you're interested. Modern varieties of tomatoes are not acidic enough to be safely canned using a water bath method and that is why the lemon juice is required. You can faintly taste it in the finished product, but adding a tablespoon or so of sugar to the recipe you use the tomatoes in will offset that taste.
Keep the pH at the Correct Level
It's recommended to use the bottled lemon juice from the grocery store (such as ReaLemon) instead of squeezing fresh lemons. The pH of the bottled juice is controlled at a specific level and fresh lemon juice may or may not have the necessary pH to maintain the safety of your canned tomatoes. Pickling salt is used because it doesn't have any additives that could cloud the liquid in the jars. It's just pure salt.
Way more than you wanted to know about canning tomatoes. Am I right?
Fill Jars with Prepared Tomatoes
Fill the jar half to three-fourths full with tomatoes and then gently press on the tomatoes to release the juice and fill all the space between the tomatoes. Continue filling and gently pressing until the contents of the jar are within 1/2 inch of the top rim.
Clean Jar Rims and Apply the Lids
Wipe the rim of the jar with a wet paper towel. Apply the lid and ring and set the jar back on the elevated rack in the canner. Repeat the process until all jars are filled.
Lower the Filled Jars into the Canner
Now carefully lower the rack with all the filled jars into the boiling water in the canner. There must be enough water in the canner to completely cover the tops of the jars by one inch. I find that it's helpful to keep a kettle or pot of boiling water going on the stove to top up the water in the canner if needed.
Process in Boiling Water
Begin timing when the water in the canner returns to the boil. Process 85 minutes in boiling water. Remember, the water in the canner must remain at the boil for the entire processing time.
If you live at a higher altitude, you'll need to adjust your processing time according to the following:
- 1,001 – 3,000 ft, 90 minutes
- 3,001 – 6,000 ft, 95 minutes
- above 6,000 ft, 100 minutes
You can always can your tomatoes in pint jars if you'd like. For pints, use half the amount of ingredients per jar. Processing time is the same.
Don't Take Shortcuts!
I just have to share this photo with you. I know all you seasoned canners will be able to sympathize with me. In all my years of canning, I had never had a jar break. Until now. I got in a hurry and took a shortcut (I'm not telling what I did) that let my jars cool down too much.
When I put this one in the canner, I heard that distinctive "pop" and immediately knew that it had broken. If this happens to you, don't even think about trying to save the contents. There are likely to be teensy-tiny shards of glass in there that you'd never find. Just let it go and learn your lesson like I did!
Final Steps and Storage
At the end of the processing time, turn off the heat under the canner and allow the jars to sit in the water for 10 minutes.
Carefully remove the jars from the canner and set them on a folded kitchen towel. Allow the jars to cool completely before moving them (at least overnight). Check to make sure the seals are complete. Store in a dark, cool area.
More Canning Recipes on Never Enough Thyme:
- Pickled Okra
- Sugar-Free Bread and Butter Pickles
- Favorite Kosher Dills
- Basic Salsa Canning Recipe
- Strawberry Jam
Great Internet Resources for Safe Canning Techniques and Recipes:
- National Center for Home Food Preservation (University of Georgia)
- Home Food Preservation Site (Pennsylvania State University)
- The USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning
- “Some Canning Do’s and Don’ts” from The New York Times
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📖 Recipe
Home Canned Tomatoes
Ingredients
Ingredients for a standard canner load (7 quarts):
- 21 pounds fresh, whole tomatoes
- 14 tbsp Bottled lemon juice
- 7 tsp Pickling salt
Instructions
- Prepare standard canning jars and lids according to manufacturer’s directions.
- Peel and core tomatoes. Leave whole or cut into halves or quarters.
- When all tomatoes are prepared, fill one jar at a time, keeping the other jars hot while you work.
- Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 teaspoon salt to each quart jar
- Pack tomatoes into jars, pressing gently on tomatoes until the juice fills the spaces between tomatoes. Leave 1/2 inch headspace.
- Remove air bubbles.
- Wipe rims of jars and apply two-piece canning caps.
- Process in a boiling water bath 85 minutes for both quarts and pints.
Notes
- 1,001 – 3,000 ft, 90 minutes
- 3,001 – 6,000 ft, 95 minutes
- above 6,000 ft, 100 minutes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated by software based on the ingredients in each recipe. It is an estimate only and is provided for informational purposes. You should consult your health care provider or a registered dietitian if precise nutrition calculations are needed for health reasons.
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Lana Stuart is the cook and occasional traveler here at Never Enough Thyme. Lana has been cooking since she was tall enough to reach the stove and started this blog in 2009 to share her delicious home cooking recipes. You'll find about 700 recipes here so there's sure to be something your family will like!
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Dorothy
Hi Lana, I have a question. I just finished canning my 24th quart of tomatoes. Before processing I had filled jars right to the neck of the canning jar before putting dome on jar. After screwing lid on the jars hand tight and lowering into water bath. I allowed to boil for designated time. When removing jars of tomatoes from bath, some jars had air space on top of jar with tomatoes in middle of jar and yellow liquid on the bottom of each jar. Some had no air space. Did I do something wrong?
Lana Stuart
Sounds like those jars weren't packed quite as tightly with tomatoes as they should have been. As long as they sealed, they'll be fine. That liquid is just fresh tomato juice :-)