Adevntures in Canning: Stewed Tomatoes

The same day Duchess T and I made tomato juice, we also made stewed tomatoes. Home canned tastes so much better than store bought, and you know what you are getting every time. No more accidentally buying the stewed tomatoes with the chili's in it when you just wanted plain. 

The steps to making stewed tomatoes is very similar to tomato juice. which makes it really easy to make both at the same time.

Step 1: Prepare. Wear comfy clothes that you don't mind getting stained. Canning is messy. Be ready for a messy kitchen, it means your doing it right. If by the end of the day your kitchen is spotless, you did it wrong. And don't forget to put on some good tunes. Every project is more fun with some good music in the background.


Step 2: Buy tomatoes. We went to a local farm stand and bought seconds. Seconds are bruised, very ripe and not very petty tomatoes. Perfect for canning. We used 3 bushels of tomatoes (only one and a half bushels are shown).

Step 3: Wash the jars: Just before you start the canning process, place all of your jars in the dishwasher and wash them on the "hot" setting. You need to use warm jars when the juice is ready to can to avoid having to do a water bath. And since it's good to wash the jars first anyway, you can kill two birds with one stone.

 Step 4: Cut the stem off the tomatoes and remove any bad spots. Then slice an "X" into the bottom of the ones you want to stew. By doing this it will help you to peel the skin off the tomato later. Then place the tomatoes in the sink. While you are doing this step, start boiling a couple of pots of water on the stove.

Step 5: Pour the boiling water over the tomatoes. Use enough to cover all of the tomatoes. Let them soak until the water cools enough for you to put your hand in (about 1-2 minutes).

Step 6: After the tomatoes have soaked for a couple of minutes the skin on the tomatoes will easily peel off. Peel the skin from all of the tomatoes and set aside.

Step 7: Slice the peeled tomatoes into chunks and place them in a large pot. Squeeze the slices slightly as you place them in the pot to release some juice.

Step 8: Then place the pot on the stove and cook until the tomatoes are boiling.

Step 9: At the same time you put the tomaotes on the stove to boil, use a small pot to boil the lids for the jars.

 Step 10: Scoop the tomatoes into jars using a measuring cup and a canning funnel. Make sure there isn't any juice on the rim of the jar. If there is, you will not get a good seal. Place the lid on the jar and screw on a ring. 

Step 11: Once the jar is full of stewed tomatoes and the lids and rings are secure, place the jar on a table or counter upside down. Repeat step 10. When the next jar is ready, flip the previous jar right side up. This will help in the sealing process. 

Step 12: When the lids seal to the jars you will hear a little popping sound. It's the sound of success. It might happen right away or it could happen as much as a couple of hours later. If you don't hear a popping sound and if you can push the top of the lid in, it didn't seal.

We canned three bushels of tomatoes in about six hours. In addition to stewed tomatoes, we also canned tomato juice. The three bushels made 40 jars (pints and quarts) of tomato juice and 34 jars (pints) of stewed tomatoes.