Greetings everyone,
I know that I have been MIA for a while and I do apologize for that. This is a very busy time of year for us. We have been gathering the harvest from the garden for storage. Fantastic crop of squash this year and lots of tomatoes. The everbearing strawberries are still producing quite a few berries although we had a hard frost last night so I expect that will be the end of them.
In addition to all of that we are painting the outside of our house. Huge job.
One of the things that we have been doing is making tomato sauce. I have done a blog post on that before but I did not talk about safely canning the sauce.
At present I use a hot water bath canner, the same one that I have used for the last 20+ years without any problems.
Here is my step by step process of canning tomatoes.
Naturally, first of all you need to make the tomato sauce. I will leave that up to you to use whatever recipe and method you choose. I wash the tomatoes, cut them up, run them through our grinding machine to separate seeds and skin from flesh and juice and then cook them down for a few hours.
When we are ready to can them we fill up the canner with hot water and set it up outside on a propane heater and bring the water to a boil.
The next step is to collect the jars and rings and give them a really good wash in hot soapy water. Rinse well.
I them put the wet jars on a cookie sheet and into a COLD oven. I heat the oven to 225 F and when it has reached temperature I set the timer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile I put the rings and lids into a pot and bring to a rapid simmer after which I turn off the heat and let them sit until needed. I have heard that there are new lids out there that do not require warming up but I have yet to find them in my stores.
The tomato sauce is brought to a boil. Sorry the picture is so misty but there was a lot of steam coming off the pot. :)
We get all our materials ready. The canning funnel and the ladle are sterilized under boiling water and we get out a bottle of lemon juice.
We do not know the exact acidity level of the tomatoes so we do not take a chance when canning them. We simply add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to each jar of sauce. We have never had a problem doing this. Better safe than sorry.
After filling the jars, (and be sure to leave the correct head space indicated by your recipe), wiping the rims and putting on the lids and rings, they go into the rack and get lowered into the canner. The jars must be at least 1" below the water level. We put on the lid and wait for it to return to a full boil at which point I set the timer for 45 minutes which is the time indicated in my canning book.
I am sorry that I do not have photos of filling up the jars but we cannot waste time when doing that. The jars are scalding hot as is the sauce and it needs to be done quickly.
When the time is up we remove them carefully and set them on a towel in a draft free place to allow them to cool completely. I just love to hear the sound of all the lids pinging as they seal up. Music to my ears!
After they are all cool I wipe down the jars, either label them or write the date on the lid and store them away in the larder for later use. I just love knowing that I have that wonderful store of food available for our winter suppers.
That is all from me for today. If you are Canadian I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving as this is the weekend that we celebrate here in Canada.
Thanks so much for stopping by. See you back soon. Cheers.
I know that I have been MIA for a while and I do apologize for that. This is a very busy time of year for us. We have been gathering the harvest from the garden for storage. Fantastic crop of squash this year and lots of tomatoes. The everbearing strawberries are still producing quite a few berries although we had a hard frost last night so I expect that will be the end of them.
In addition to all of that we are painting the outside of our house. Huge job.
One of the things that we have been doing is making tomato sauce. I have done a blog post on that before but I did not talk about safely canning the sauce.
At present I use a hot water bath canner, the same one that I have used for the last 20+ years without any problems.
Here is my step by step process of canning tomatoes.
Naturally, first of all you need to make the tomato sauce. I will leave that up to you to use whatever recipe and method you choose. I wash the tomatoes, cut them up, run them through our grinding machine to separate seeds and skin from flesh and juice and then cook them down for a few hours.
When we are ready to can them we fill up the canner with hot water and set it up outside on a propane heater and bring the water to a boil.
The next step is to collect the jars and rings and give them a really good wash in hot soapy water. Rinse well.
I them put the wet jars on a cookie sheet and into a COLD oven. I heat the oven to 225 F and when it has reached temperature I set the timer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile I put the rings and lids into a pot and bring to a rapid simmer after which I turn off the heat and let them sit until needed. I have heard that there are new lids out there that do not require warming up but I have yet to find them in my stores.
The tomato sauce is brought to a boil. Sorry the picture is so misty but there was a lot of steam coming off the pot. :)
We get all our materials ready. The canning funnel and the ladle are sterilized under boiling water and we get out a bottle of lemon juice.
After filling the jars, (and be sure to leave the correct head space indicated by your recipe), wiping the rims and putting on the lids and rings, they go into the rack and get lowered into the canner. The jars must be at least 1" below the water level. We put on the lid and wait for it to return to a full boil at which point I set the timer for 45 minutes which is the time indicated in my canning book.
I am sorry that I do not have photos of filling up the jars but we cannot waste time when doing that. The jars are scalding hot as is the sauce and it needs to be done quickly.
When the time is up we remove them carefully and set them on a towel in a draft free place to allow them to cool completely. I just love to hear the sound of all the lids pinging as they seal up. Music to my ears!
After they are all cool I wipe down the jars, either label them or write the date on the lid and store them away in the larder for later use. I just love knowing that I have that wonderful store of food available for our winter suppers.
That is all from me for today. If you are Canadian I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving as this is the weekend that we celebrate here in Canada.
Thanks so much for stopping by. See you back soon. Cheers.
No comments:
Post a Comment