The Best Canned Tomatoes & Ways to Can Tomatoes
Canning tomatoes quickly gets on the list of to-do’s for home gardeners. When your tomato harvest surprises you, you can store them in the freezer for a few weeks. But once you plant seeds for this season’s tomato plants, it’s high time to use up the last of the tomatoes in the freezer. For us, hot packing tomatoes makes the best canned tomatoes. That way, they are ready to transform into any sauce we need.
We have been growing our tomatoes on our tomato arch trellis for 3 years at the time I’m writing this post, and it’s worked like a charm!
What is the best method for canning tomatoes?
There are many ways to preserve tomatoes including a few ways you can store them in “cans” or jars, making them shelf stable for several months (or years).
Tomatoes can usually be canned either by water bath canning or pressure (steam) canning.
Choosing the best method for canning tomatoes will depend on what kind of canner you have and what you expect to use it for. Will you be canning tomatoes for a spaghetti or pizza sauce? Or do you intend to simply preserve them as quickly possible and make special sauces with the puree later when you crack the can?
That is because the best canned tomatoes are those that hold the desired outcome you are aiming for. Some canning recipes contain ingredients that must be pressure canned, while most are basic and meet the acidity requirements for water bath canning.
High acid foods: usually water bath canned (“faster”)
Foods with pH level of 4.6 and higher:
- Fruits
- Juices
- Pickled/Fermented foods
Low acid foods: must be pressure canned
- Meat
- Seafood
- Fruits
- Vegetables
Depending on what you want to can and what recipe you intend to use will depict if you should be water batch canning or pressure canning (steam canning). See more on the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s website for specific recipes.
Water bath canning (our favourite)
Right now, our favourite way to can tomatoes is water bath canning the tomatoes plain. That is because we are making the most basic tomato sauce there is. Just tomatoes cooked and hot packed into canning jars. All it takes to can tomatoes with this method is:
- Defrost the tomatoes (skip this step if canning from fresh tomatoes)
- Remove the skins and any defects in the tomatoes
- Bring the tomatoes to a boil in a pot on the stove
- Add the warm tomatoes/puree/sauce to jars
- Add 2tbsp of lemon juice and 1tsp of salt per quart jar (half for pint jars)
- Stir and remove air bubbles
- Wipe the rims and seal with lids and rings
- Add jars to a water bath canning pot
- Fill the pot with water so that the jars are covered with 2 inches of water
- Once the water boils, set your timer for 45 minutes and continue boiling with the pots lid on
- After 45 minutes, remove the jars carefully from the pot and leave to cool on the counter for several hours or overnight
- Label jar lids and store
There you have the rundown of our best canned tomatoes. From there, we turn the sauce into all kinds of sauces for pizza, pasta, etc at the time of cooking.
Pressure canning
Pressure canning is another option for preserving food, and great for preserving tomatoes. We have the 921 All American Pressure Canner and there is an array of recipes available on the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s website.
To preserve tomatoes with this method, simply:
- Remove the skins and any defects in the tomatoes
- Heat the tomatoes in a saucepan
- Add the warm tomatoes/puree/sauce to jars
- Add 2tbsp of lemon juice and 1tsp of salt per quart jar (half for pint jars)
- Stir and remove air bubbles
- Wipe the rims and seal with lids and rings
- Follow steps of pressure canner to can jars
Do you have to boil tomatoes before canning?
No, they do not have to be. There are specific recipes that does not require boiling the tomatoes. For example, this raw packed tomato pressure canning recipe. Alternatively, you could pack your tomatoes into the jar and fill it with warm tomato juice, like this recipe suggests.
We simply peel the skins and toss the tomatoes into one pot and bring it to a boil before packing it into our jars.
