Canned tomatoes are a staple in our home. We use them to make tomato sauce with meat and pasta. I drain them (drink the juice) and toss them into salads in the winter. We eat them on hamburgers and as a side dish right out of the jar. Compared to the "fresh" tomatoes which are available in the market, there is no comparison for flavor.
The only tomatoes we can (as long as we have a choice) are San Marzanos. They are a roma tomato and are very meaty with less water than other varieties. They hold up well, are not very acidic, and taste great!
To can tomatoes whole, I do the following:
1. Wash the tomatoes in the sink. Cut off really bad spots (black spots) and smell the tomato to make sure it's OK. A lot of times if there's a big black spot in the tomato, the whole thing should be tossed out. Feed the scraps to the chickens or pig, or compost them.
2. Prepare 7 quart-sized jars for canning (wash) and fill each with 1/2 t. salt.
2. Drop 10 - 20 tomatoes into boiling water. As soon as you see the skin on one tomato crack, remove them all. I place them immediately into cold water.
3. Remove the skins. Put the whole tomato into the jar. It takes about 14 tomatoes to fill a jar.
4. Fill the jar until it's about 1/4" from the top. Take a knife and run it along the outer edge (down to the bottom) of the jar to release any trapped air in the jar.
5. Wipe the rim. Place a seal on and the ring.
6. When you have enough jars filled to fill your canner, place in either a hot water canner or a pressure cooker and process according to their instructions.
Important: Make sure you replace at least half of the water in the canner with cold water before you do a second batch or you might crack a jar. Also, do not open the lid on a pressure cooker until the pressure is down to 0 or do not open up the steam vent to let the pressure go down more quickly - the liquid in the jars will evacuate and you'll be left with a 1/2 full jar.
Remove the jars from the pot, let cool, rinse the next day and remove the rings (only after about 24 hours) and store in a dark, cool place. I store ours in a pantry and it's not super-cool or super-dark but it works.
Enjoy!
