Canned Beefsteak Tomatoes

About this Recipe

The recipe for canning tomatoes is one that we use year to year. Sterilizing the jars in the oven is one of the little things to make the process a bit easier. You can use any variety of tomato you like. Beefsteak tomatoes are going to give you more juice than something like a Roma tomato that is popular when making tomato sauce as they do not have as much juice in them as a beefsteak tomato.

We like to can some tomatoes for making homemade vegetable soup recipes over the cooler months. The flavor and the liquid that is created using the beefsteak tomato is a great choice for this purpose.

Grandmother's TIPS for Beefsteak Canned Tomatoes Recipe:

1. The main time saver for us with this batch was to do our jar sterilizing in the oven. See below in the directions a link to the methods of sterilizing jars.

2. Our large canner has slots for 7 jars, but we have found that the large jars we have are too wide to fit 7 in the canner so we used 5 quart jars and 2 pint jars.

3. Choose large or smaller jars to can your tomatoes depending on your family size and use for the canned tomatoes.

4. Batch sizes vary with different size tomatoes. If you end up with a bit too many for the jars, you can always freeze tomatoes in freezer bags.


Ingredients

(Print)

Our batch made: 5 quart jars and 2 pint jars

12-14 pounds fresh beefsteak tomatoes

Bottled pure lemon juice - 2 Tablespoons per jar

Course pickling salt - 1 teaspoon per jar

Directions

1. Wash and sterilize the canning jars, lids and rings. We recommend Grandmother's Kitchen helpful post on How to Sterilize Canning Jars.

We used the oven method and when the jars were ready, placed the baking sheet onto our counter top, leaving the baking sheet under the jars to catch any spills.

2. Put 2 tablespoons pure lemon juice and 1 teaspoon coarse pickling salt at the bottom on each jar. Use the same amount in both size jars.

3. Wash the tomatoes in a sink full of water. You can either skin them in the sink or a large bowl in batches.

We did ours in the sink. Once the tomatoes are washed, put the plug back into the sink and boil enough water to cover the tomatoes. We used a kettle and just kept boiling water and pouring onto the tomatoes until there was enough to cover them all. It is fine if the tomatoes are sitting in the boiling water as you are doing this process.

4. Let the tomatoes sit submersed in the boiling hot water for a few minutes until you see the skins starting to peel back from the tomatoes.

5. Use a paring knife to slip the skins off and cut out the cores.

6. We find it easiest to put all the peeled tomatoes and place the peeled tomatoes into a large mixing bowl. When we have them all done we cut them into small pieces before putting them into the prepared jars.

7. Fill each jar to about 1/2 inch from the top smashing down the tomatoes in each jar so there is no air space.

Wipe the tops of the jars so they are clean before you put the sterilized seals and rings on. Screw the rings on firmly.

8. Put the prepared filled jars into a canner and fill the canner with water until the jars are completely covered with water. Fill water to about an inch deeper than the jar tops.

9. Bring to a boil and cook (process) for 45 minutes.

10. When done, this is going to be boiling hot. Turn off the burner and wait until the rolling boil stops. Carefully lift the metal holding rack up so it is nestled onto the sides of the canner which will mean the canned tomatoes will be partially out of the water.

11. Use canning tongs or good thick pot holders to lift the jars out and be very careful as this is scalding hot. Have a towel on the counter to place the jars onto while they cool.

12. The lids will pop and indent down when they have sealed. Store in a cool dark place.

We not only love using canned tomatoes for adding to recipes, we love the flavor of a bowl of refrigerated canned tomatoes all on their own. They have such a wonderful satisfying flavor and are a good source of Vitamin C as well as E, fiber and potassium. They are a good antioxidant food. Often in the winter months, I get such a craving for a nice bowl of canned tomatoes!



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