Homemade Whole Peeled Tomatoes
If you’re like me, you use whole peeled tomatoes often in recipes. Sure, you can buy them from the grocery store, but if you have lots of garden tomatoes, why not make a few batches to store for Winter? The freshness of your garden harvest can now be enjoyed year round! So along with stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, roma tomato sauce and roasted toma tomatoes, won’t you start adding these to your garden tomato recipes? This recipe uses 12 pounds of tomatoes which will make (4) 1 quart jars. You can easily double, triple or more and make it a fun canning day!
What type of tomatoes should I use?
Plum tomatoes are the best to make canned whole peeled tomatoes. Popular plum tomatoes are Roma, San Marzano and Amish Tomatoes. Roma tomatoes are my favorite to grow in the garden due to their naturally sweet taste and mild acidity.
How to make Whole Peeled Tomatoes Step by Step
Boil the tomatoes so we can easily peel the skins off. After they boil, place in a water bath and then once cooled down to touch, cut out the core and peel the tomatoes. For any skin leftovers, make my tomato powder. Whole peeled tomatoes are often in juice in the cans, so we’re going to use some of them to make tomato juice. Add 1/4 of them to a blender and blend until smooth. Add this juice to a pot, bring to a boil and add whole tomatoes. Add a pinch of salt and stir the tomatoes. Now it’s up to you. You can serve as is, transfer to a container to the fridge for 3-4 days, or allow to cool and freeze. If you’re canning, move on to the next steps.
How to Can Whole Tomatoes
Water bath canning is my favorite canning method as it’s the easiest and doesn’t require many tools. For canning beginners, it’s also the least intimidating and the quickest way to learn.
I will list the quick step-by-step instructions here, but the recipe card has full directions. I recommend printing out the recipe and reading it over in full before canning them, especially if you’re new to canning.
Sterilize mason jars in a large pot of boiling water (on canning rack). Keep the water boiling as we’ll use it again soon.
Remove jars from water, and add lemon juice, salt and pickle crisp granules into each jar. Note: the pickle crisp is optional, but I use it for all my canning recipes to keep them as fresh as possible.
Ladle in the whole tomatoes into each jar, and then add the tomato juice (I use a funnel for less mess). Make sure to keep a clearance of 1 inch of free space on the top of each jar.
Get the air bubbles out of each jar by using a knife or chopstick and push down the tomatoes.
Wipe the rims clean, add lids and screw on the rings. Be careful to not screw the rings on too tight.
Place jars on to a canning rack and place back in boiling water. The jars should be completely submerged with water, with about 1-2 inches of extra water. If you need more water, you can add it in now.
Boil for 1 hour, 25 minutes – 1 hour, 40 minutes depending on your altitude. (1 hour, 25 minutes – 1,000 feet, 1 hour, 40 minutes – 6,000 feet.
Remove jars from the pot, place on counter and don’t touch for 12 hours. You’ll hear them “pop” within 30 minutes – this is a good thing and means they are sealed. I like to let them sit overnight to be sure.
Remove the rings, and then store in your cabinet. Enjoy whole peeled tomatoes year round!
Can I Freeze Them Instead?
Absolutely, make the tomatoes per recipe and then once cooled down transfer to freezer bags and freeze. Frozen whole tomatoes generally last 6-8 months.
Other Garden Recipes:
And there’s a lot more garden recipes here! Easy Strawberry PieHalf Sour PicklesTomato Mozzarella SaladKale PestoSlow Cooker Cherry Tomato SauceFresh Tomato SoupTomato Rice SoupTomato JuiceHow to Make Pumpkin Puree Pin for later:
