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I admire people who put up summer produce by the bushel, stocking their pantry shelves with row upon row of the good stuff. I’ve tried that. My dad does pickles and relish each summer, and I’ve helped out. One time I did get a giant box of tomatoes and canned spaghetti sauce myself. It was delicious and wonderful, but it was an awful lot of work and mess for the amount I got.
I wouldn’t rule out doing a mega canning session again but it’s not really my style.
Here’s my style: I take out my canning pot mid-August and leave it in my kitchen until mid-October. I can two or three or six jars of excess produce as I have it. It’s the same with freezing. As I have extra peppers or corn or whatever, I fill Ziploc bags and stash them in the freezer.
Coming into a pile of jalapenos recently, I tried a new recipe for spicy strawberry jam. I just did two pint-sized jars, and it didn’t take much more effort than baking cookies.
Canning Tomatoes
I have been canning tomatoes using this method for years and can’t imagine doing it any other way. A TV chef recommended it, so I did some research. And since I’m all about making things easier, I decided to give this method a try. It’s rather unconventional, but it works beautifully. (If you’re concerned about trying a new method of canning, by all means do your own research and only do what you are comfortable with).
Cut off the stems and pack tomatoes into clean jars. You can cut the tomatoes into pieces to fit if needed. Yes, skins, seeds, everything. I will point out that I’ve noticed that when I pack only whole tomatoes, I get less juice/excess liquid in the jars. But since my goal is to get as many in the jar as possible, that’s ok with me!
Wipe the rims of the jars and place canning lids and rings onto jars.
Here’s where things get even more unconventional. You put the jars into the empty canning pot, on a rack (or folded towel if you don’t have a rack). Now they need to be weighted down. Place a clean brick or stone on top of the jars, then pour enough water into the pot to cover the jars by at least an inch or so. It’s important to weight the jars down before adding water, as they will float around, making it difficult to do otherwise. (Note: that brick in the picture may not look clean, but it is. It’s been boiled numerous times)
Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for an hour and a half. (I forgot to take any pictures with the water in the pot…sorry about that!) Shut off the heat, but leave the jars in the pot to cool for awhile. The tomatoes will have slumped down. Take them out and set on counter to cool completely.
You’ll notice that because the tomatoes slumped down, there’s air space in the jars. For me, the convenience of this method is totally worth losing a couple of inches of tomatoes in the jars.
I usually pull these out to puree for a recipe. Just open and drain the watery liquid into the sink, dump the tomatoes into the blender and whiz! If you don’t mind the excess liquid in your recipe, you don’t have to drain them. (For example when I make jambalaya, I puree one of the pint sized jars, liquid and all.)
I recently made puree from a couple of quart sized jars that was the perfect amount for a vegetable lasagna (but I know it’d be just as delicious in this lasagna, too). Blend and season. Too easy!
(BTW – I seasoned mine with dried Italian seasoning, salt, sugar, red pepper flakes, garlic, olive oil, and fresh chopped basil)
Canning tomatoes doesn’t have to be an all day affair, friends! Try this simple method the next time you have a big bowl of ripening tomatoes on your counter.
Here are the instructions:
Ingredients
- Tomatoes
- Canning-safe jars (pint or quart)
- Canning lids, rings
- Clean brick or stone
Instructions
- Make sure jars are clean.
- Remove stems from tomatoes and pack (unpeeled) into jars, pushing down to fit in as many as possible.
- Cut tomatoes to fit more in as needed.
- Use damp paper towel to wipe rims of jars and place lids on top.
- Screw rings on securely.
- Place in canning pot, on rack (or folded towel).
- Place brick or stone on top of jars to weight them down, then fill pot with water, being sure to cover jars with at least an inch of water.
- On high heat, bring to rolling boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
- Shut off heat, leave jars in pot.
- Let cool for 1/2 to 1 hour in pot.
- Remove jars from pot and let cool completely on counter, tomatoes will have slumped significantly in jar, leaving air space.
- Tomatoes will slump more as they cool and liquid settles.
- Tighten rings and store in cool, dark place.
Here’s where I found the original instructions.
Shirlene Weber says
August 30, 2016 at 3:13 pmThat goes against all canning rules I have ever read or been told. Very interesting and looks so much easier than the way we have always done our canning.
I will share this with my husband, he loves to can tomatoes but we have done large batches. This could change him forever.
Susan says
August 30, 2016 at 6:55 pmShirlene, I was skeptical, too. But I did some research on the original recipe and it was created by Anne Willan, who is described as “a respected chef who has written over a dozen internationally published cookbooks, and is the founder of one of the best culinary schools in the world, La Varenne, in France.” I really love doing them this way! Let me know if you try it!
Andrea H says
September 2, 2016 at 8:41 amI must agree about being skeptical right now. My concern is the air left in the jars! However, it won’t keep me from at least trying it. I am assuming cherry tomatoes will work just as well?
Susan says
September 2, 2016 at 12:31 pmAndrea, Give it a try, and/or do some research. If you find something different than I did, please do stop back and let me know! Everything I found said that although unconventional, her (Anne Willan) method is safe. I’ve not done it with cherry tomatoes, but my guess would be it would work just the same.
Mia White says
September 6, 2016 at 9:25 amSo wait, the tomatoes are completely raw then? And the canning is what kind of cooks them and makes them slump? This is far less work than I’m used to doing… No lemon juice on top?
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Susan says
September 6, 2016 at 11:23 amYup, the tomatoes are packed raw, no lemon juice. It is definitely unconventional, but has worked great for me. And the fact that it’s so much less work than other methods is why I keep doing it!
Heather says
August 30, 2018 at 4:59 pmI don’t know where you do your canning research, but this is NOT a safe canning method. I wouldn’t risk poisoning my family and friends to save a few minutes while canning anything.
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can3_tomato.html
https://www.bernardin.ca/recipes/en/seasoned-tomato-sauce.htm?Lang=EN-US
https://www.freshpreserving.com/herbed-tomatoes-%7C-seasoned-tomatoes—ball-fresh-preserving-br1065.html
Susan says
August 30, 2018 at 9:38 pmHi Heather, This is definitely an unconventional method. It was developed by chef Anne Willan, founder of one of the best culinary schools in the world. The Food Network also shares her method. My recommendation is that if you don’t feel comfortable with it, you should follow a method you prefer. 🙂
Jenna says
August 30, 2018 at 5:34 pmThis is completely unsafe and horribly wrong. If convenience is more important than safety, go to the store and buy tomatoes but don’t do it this way!!
Susan says
August 30, 2018 at 9:38 pmHi Jenna, This is definitely an unconventional method. It was developed by chef Anne Willan, founder of one of the best culinary schools in the world. The Food Network also shares her method. My recommendation is that if you don’t feel comfortable with it, you should follow a method you prefer. 🙂
Kim says
August 30, 2018 at 7:04 pmmost unsafe thing I have seen in a while, so sad
Susan says
August 30, 2018 at 9:37 pmHi Kim, This is definitely an unconventional method. It was developed by chef Anne Willan, founder of one of the best culinary schools in the world. The Food Network also shares her method. My recommendation is that if you don’t feel comfortable with it, you should follow a method you prefer. 🙂
Leah says
August 31, 2018 at 9:58 amThis is completely unsafe. Saying over and over that it’s unconventional and from a chef doesn’t mean it’s right or safe. I’ve seen food network share multiple unsafe canning recipes. Tomatoes need to be acidified. They should be skinned. When raw packing it’s important to mash as many as you can in the jar to eliminate air spaces, as heat transfer through air and fluid are very different. If you actually did these three easy steps of adding acid, peeling, and packing solidly you could be safely canning them, you wouldn’t need a brick, and the process time is 5 minutes less. Please don’t teach people dangerous methods. Especially when it’s easy to do it right and at a minimum you may have spoilage and at worst you’ll have botulism. Look up solid pack raw tomatoes for actual safe methods. If peeling is a problem you can freeze the tomatoes whole and unpeeled while you gather enough to can then thaw them to can. The peel will slip right off and they will be easy to pack into jars.
Susan says
August 31, 2018 at 10:35 amLeah, I would never encourage anyone to do anything that they are uncomfortable with. Having said that, I also eat raw cookie dough, drink raw milk, use comfrey to treat wounds, and cook my favorite roasted chicken low and slow, none of which follow FDA guidelines. I do appreciate your tips to ensure safe canning, though. And I’m happy to share them for anyone who’d like to give cold pack canning a try, but is concerned about this method.
Momster says
September 9, 2018 at 12:34 pmI’ve done this recipe a few times in years past and it worked beautifully! It is very unconventional and I was extremely skeptical the first time, but as I have a ton of tomatoes from the garden and my family loves tomato soup when the weather is cold, I will be doing this again later today. We just pop the top, throw it in the Vitamix, heat it up and add a little cream or chicken broth…so good and so easy! Thanks for the reminder of this method.
Susan says
September 9, 2018 at 4:04 pmWonderful! It is so easy and efficient, isn’t it? Tomato soup sounds perfect as the weather starts to get a bit more crisp!