Cold Packing Tomatoes
Ingredients
- We've been cold packing our tomatoes for 18 years and they taste
- great. Mostly now we use paste-size tomatoes for canning because
- they hold their texture much better than regular. But we've also
- used slicer tomatoes.
Instructions
Cold Pack Tomatoes Peel tomatoes and cut into chunks. (we let the cut pieces go right into the canning jar). Pack them down somewhat with a wooden plunger or your hand, so that some juices run - but don't smash them flat. Fill to within 1/2 inch of the jar rim. Top with 1/2 tsp citric acid or 2 T lemon juice. Run a non-metal spatula around the inside of the jar to remove air bubbles. Clean jar rim. Top with your lid, tighten it, and process in a B-W bath for 45 minutes (industry standard now calls for 85 minutes I think, but really.) Helpful hint: we sterilize our jars in the canner while the water is heating. If you pack one jar of tomatoes at a time, the jar often stays hot enough to put right back into the canner. If not, sit the jar in a separate pot of hot water to warm it.