Canning Tips/Hints

[doctor phreak]

hey guys & gals i will be canning tomatoes tomorrow and was wondering if anybody had some tips or hints or a way they do it....we had a lot of tomatoes this year and i do not want them to go to waste...any help would be helpful...thanks

[Texas-Hunter]

I thought Big Guy's post on his Spag sauce was excellent... http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2944


When I was a young boy I would help my grandmother make tomato sauce.. Blanch the tomatos and skin them... Put into a pot and simmer them with some salt to taste... Then she would skim off alot of the water.. Put in Mason jars and drop into her pressure cooker for a few... Pull and cool till the lids popped..

[Big Guy]

I don't like to burst your bubble but that is a sad looking bunch of tomatoes. If you are going to process tomatoes its a lot easier if the tomatoes are ripe, no orange or green shoulders. They should be blemish free.
unripe and cracked , blemished and miss-shapen tomatoes take a lot of extra work to remove the skin to process as whole or crushed tomatoes
. I would suggest you make sauce. you just cut the tomatoes into chunks and feed them through a tomato strainer. pulp and juice come out and seeds and skin go out the end. You can then process this sauce, or make it into other sauces.

[SmokinLee]

Big Guy is right. I wanted to say the same thing. But I guess I didn't want to burst your bubble and I really should have because it is the right way.

[SMOKE FREAK]

Some of them tomaters look like peaches... I aint never grown any like that...

[doctor phreak]

I don't like to burst your bubble but that is a sad looking bunch of tomatoes. If you are going to process tomatoes its a lot easier if the tomatoes are ripe, no orange or green shoulders. They should be blemish free.
unripe and cracked , blemished and miss-shapen tomatoes take a lot of extra work to remove the skin to process as whole or crushed tomatoes
. I would suggest you make sauce. you just cut the tomatoes into chunks and feed them through a tomato strainer. pulp and juice come out and seeds and skin go out the end. You can then process this sauce, or make it into other sauces.

If you had 100+ degree weather like we do here yea i think your tomatoes might not look very good either be glad you live in a area where your temps are not that high...well i went ahead and canned them anyway LIKE they are and had no problems everything sealed ok...all i did was cut out the BAD spots...But thanks for the input....also canned some Bread & Butter Pickles as well the cukes came out of my garden cant wait to try them.....

[lynsey123]

Listen Doc you what you can with what you have and if they don't like it they don't have to look.

Frankly I'm a little surprized at some of the posts on here about your tomatoes my friend.

[RowdyRay]

Good for you Doc. Make due with what you got.

[Big Guy]

Good job, enjoy the fruits of your labour.

[Texas-Hunter]

Listen Doc you what you can with what you have and if they don't like it they don't have to look.

Frankly I'm a little surprized at some of the posts on here about your tomatoes my friend.

I don't believe BG meant any malice or hatefulness to Mike.. Mike and I are in the same boat.. It gets hot as hell here and some veggies do better than others. Tomato's are one that do not thrive here due to the heat..(See my post on maters)..

Still we harvest what we can, and use it for what its worth..

[Cajunsmoke13]

Looks good Doc. My tomatoes have been done for about a month. This 110 heat index for 3 weeks straight killed them. I pulled a bunch before they were ripe and they ripened just fine on the counter. Nice job....I'm ready to plant my fall garden...

[doctor phreak]

I don't believe BG meant any malice or hatefulness to Mike.. Mike and I are in the same boat.. It gets hot as hell here and some veggies do better than others. Tomato's are one that do not thrive here due to the heat..(See my post on maters)..

Still we harvest what we can, and use it for what its worth..

very true , no disrespect to BG its just get hot here and this is what i have and maybe a little more work but its better than toss them in the trash...hopefully these will make good stew or chili later on in the winter months...

[SmokinLee]

I think it was more of concern and helpfullness, and not of picking on a particular member. I am glad what he could salvage, and I bet it is a real bear dealing with that heat. We all try to help one another the best we can, and really don't know there knowledge or experience in certain areas such as home canning. Sorry lysey if you thought it was a dig.




OTE=lynsey123;45115]Listen Doc you what you can with what you have and if they don't like it they don't have to look.

Frankly I'm a little surprized at some of the posts on here about your tomatoes my friend.[/QUOTE]

[Big Guy]

I appoligize if I came accross as disrespectfull. As gardeners we are all at the mercy of the weather. Some times we get the shaft and have to make do with what we have I commend you for doing so.

[lynsey123]

Oh don't get me wrong I didn't mean anything like that I just ment that I'm surprized because no-one else seems to be having alot of luck that I know either.

Not that anyone was being nasty.

Sorry if you mis understood.