This past weekend I made  a video of the entire process of canning tomatoes, in response to receiving so many questions about how to do it. The video below is under 30 minutes and goes over water bath canning as well as canning “best practices” for the safety of canned goods. There are also some very important links at the bottom which you may find helpful. To see a photograph tutorial on water bath canning, please click here.
This is my real kitchen when it is not magazine ready. A lot of work and living takes place in this room and it shows! 🙂
Note: It is up to the viewer/reader to use best canning practices and common sense when canning. I am not responsible for overseeing the canning methods and safety of others.Â
Links:
- My electric canner (this isn’t necessary, just a nice luxury):
- My pressure canner (for canning beans, meats, etc)
- A less expensive but still very nice pressure canner
Note: Pressure canners can also serve as pressure cookers, HOWEVER pressure cookers cannot serve as pressure canners.
Ball Canning Jars: For canning jars, I suggest Target or Wal Mart. Target tends to have more of the collector’s edition colored jars from Ball than Wal Mart does, at least in my area. You can purchase these online but you will likely pay a great deal more for them versus buying in stores near you.
- A nice Canning set : Funnel, Canning Tongs, etcÂ
- Ball Blue Book for Preserving Recipes and Instructions
Excellent website resources for safe canning recipes:
Things you cannot safely can at home:
Grandma may have done it, Miss Flossy Canner may have a video about it on youtube, and your neighbor may swear by it, but that still doesn’t make it safe.Â
Butter – no matter what anyone tells you, it is never safe to can butter at home. If it hasn’t killed you yet, I hope your luck holds.
Bacon – There is simply too much fat in bacon to can safely at home. If you simply must have canned bacon, you can purchase Yoder’s. Note: Yoder’s is not cheap. That is the main reason why I quickly put bacon on my list of “things I will most likely have to learn to live without someday.”
I suggest just freezing bacon when you find a sale.
Ingredients
- Tomatoes
- Bottled Lemon Juice or Powdered Citric Acid
- Canning Jars I use pints, lids, and rings
- Large pot with a lid big enough to cover the jars by one inch of water
- Dish Towel if using a regular pot and not a water bath canning pot
- Canning Tongs Canning Funnel
- Scoop to pour contents into jars
Instructions
- Fill large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes (in batches if you need to) and allow to boil until skins split. Remove with slotted spoon and place in a dish. Allow to cool slightly. Repeat until all tomatoes have been done this way.
- Fill canning pot with water and bring to a low boil. If using a regular pot, place a dish towel in the bottom. Add jars and lids (not rings) and allow to simmer until ready to use.
- Gently pull skins off of tomatoes. Cut off tops, if desired. Drain the pot you boiled the tomatoes in and add skinned tomatoes back to this pot. Chop up with a chopper or potato masher while bringing to boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and stir often, boiling gently for 5 minutes.
- Carefully remove jars from boiling water in canner and drain into canner. Place jars on dish towel lined countertop. Use your canning funnel to fill each jar, being careful to leave 1/2 inch of space at top.
- Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon citric acid to each filled jar. Use a damp paper towel to wipe around the rim and sides of each jar where the lid and ring will go.
- Place lid and ring on each jar and tighten lightly, but not overly tight.
- Use canning tongs to lower each jar into water bath. Make sure there is enough water to cover the jars by an inch. Cover with lid and bring to a rolling boil. Once it is at a rolling boil processing time begins : 35 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts.
- Remove from canner once processed and place on dish towel lined counter. Allow to cool completely before removing rings.
Nutrition
Preserve today and enjoy tomorrow!Â
Join me this Saturday for National Can It Forward Day! I’ll be canning live from Ball Headquarters in Indiana. To get details on how to watch the webcast this weekend, click here.
Also, follow me on Instagram to see photos from my tour of the Ball Canning Factory by clicking here!
#Canitforward !
For more great canning recipes, visit FreshPreserving.com and Ball Canning on Facebook.
This post was not sponsored by Ball Canning, but I wanted to give them a shout out anyway!
Thank you so much!
One other thing I would like to mention is that as an alternative to trying to fit all your online degree tutorials on times that you finish work (considering that people are tired when they return home), try to receive most of your instructional classes on the week-ends and only 1 or 2 courses for weekdays, even if it means a little time off your saturdays. This is really good because on the weekends, you will be far more rested plus concentrated upon school work. Thanks a bunch for the different suggestions I have learned from your web site.
You are welcome 🙂
Christy, wish you would do more videos. I really enjoyed this canning video.
I want to thank you for your recommendation of the electric canner. I used mine today for the first time for tomatoes. It is so much better than a regular canner on the stove. No more boil over and worrying about burning up the stove top with water overflowing.