How To Grow Great Tomatoes

How To Can Tomatoes

September 24th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Select only disease-free, preferably vine-ripened, firm fruit if you want to learn how to can tomatoes successfully. Never choose tomatoes from dead or dying vines for canning. Unripened tomatoes are more acidic than ripened fruit and can be canned satisfactorily. Treat all ripe tomatoes - yellow, green, pink, orange, red, etc. - in the same manner.

Ohio State University makes the following recommendations to ensure safe acidity levels in whole, crushed, or juiced tomatoes:

Acid	Pint	Quart
Bottled lemon juice	1 tablespoon	2 tablespoons
Citric acid	1/4 teaspoon	1/2 teaspoon
Vinegar (5 percent acidity)	2 tablespoons	4 tablespoons

Add acid directly to the jars before filling with product. If desired, add up to 1 tablespoon of sugar per quart to offset acidic taste. Vinegar may cause undesirable flavor changes.

The use of salt is optional in all canned tomato products. Salt is used in canning only for flavor or color protection. Even though both boiling water bath and pressure processing are commonly used when canning tomatoes, pressure processing will result in higher quality and more nutritious canned tomato products.

More information on how to can tomatoes can be obtained here.

ripe tomato