Crushed Tomatoes Canning

So if you are like most people starting out a garden for the first time you planted WAY too many tomato plants (I hear this all the time). What do you do with all those flippin' tomatoes!!! 

Well can them of course! Here is a super easy way to can some crushed tomatoes. Then you can use them all year long or right away. The first batch I made I didn't even bother to can but turned it into spaghetti sauce and canned that. It makes life a little easier for me to have spaghetti sauce on hand. 

If you have never canned before go here (someday there will be a link here) to learn some basics.

Crushed Tomatoes

Step 1: Pick yourself some good tomaters! I like to pick them just before they are all the way red and let them finish up on the counter. Still good this way and then you don't have to worry about bugs getting to them first.

Step 2: Get a big pot of boiling water going and next to it have a ice bath (culinary word of the day! ice bath: cold water with ice in it...very technical I know)

Step 3: once you got your water boiling (and I mean a rolling boil) drop your maters in.

Step 4: It will take a minute or two but soon you will see the skin starting to peel. When this happens, ladle them out and put them immediately into the ice bath. 

Step 5: Once they are cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and dice or crush to your own choosing. you could even leave them whole if you want. I like a pretty fine dice, but that's just me. 

Like I said, the first batch I turned into spaghetti sauce, which you can find the recipe here (again maybe someday there will be a link here) so I used them like you would any old can of crushed tomatoes that you crack open then processed the spaghetti sauce. 

Aren't they Pretty!

Step 5: If you are going to straight 'can' the crushed tomatoes then move along to the next steps with me. First Ladle them into your jars, I used a pint and a half Ball mason jars with a wide mouth. IF I was just going to put them in the freezer (for example my cream of whatever soup I don't really care what jar I use but for canning I always use Ball Mason Jars) Make sure you wipe the rims before topping with your processed lids. (boiled in hot water then kept warm till needed)

Step 6: Here you can do what you will. Some people like to add some salt to the top, I don't. I do add a splash of Lemon juice (1Tb per jar) and some sugar (1 tsp per jar) now I didn't add this to the ones I used right away, in fact I have canned crushed tomatoes without adding anything to it and it turned out just fine. Yes, the salt, sugar, and lemon will help the canning and preserving process but not vital if you are against it. I have never tried Honey or Agava substitute for the sugar so I don't know if that is a possibility. 

Step 7: Process in a bath of Hot boiling water. You want at least 2in of water covering the jars. Leave Jars to process (boil) for 50mins checking to make sure that there is still 2in covering the jars from time to time. 

Step 8: remove the Jars from the pot of boiling water. If there is one canning tool I say is a MUST for canning, is this jar lifter to get the jars out of the water without burning yourself

Step 9: Place on a towel and let it come to room temperature. Don't be tempted to re-screw the lids on (sometimes they get loose during the canning process) until 24hrs after taking them out of the bath, this may mess up the sealing process. After about 12hrs your cans should be set but some may take the whole 24hrs. Mine usually seal within the first 2hrs. You will know they sealed if you push down on the center of the lid and it doesn't pop back up. If they don't set refrigerate and use within a week or put in ziplock bags and freeze.

Now you have this fabulous finished product. Now you may be thinking WHOLEY CRAP! I DID SOMETHING WRONG! THE TOMATOES SEPARATED FROM THE WATER! Don't panic! The reason mine separated is because I did the spaghetti one day then threw the rest of my crushed tomatoes in the fridge until I was ready to can them. I did have to warm up my crushed tomatoes before canning them and this cooling then reheating process broke down the tomatoes more then if it was just straight canned. Like I said no biggie it's still ok! just give it a shake when its cool and all will be well again :)

IF this is your first time canning there are a few items I recommend getting. 

1. A large pot, I use a Granite Ware Steel/Porcelain water bath canner with rack (its cheep and you don't need anything fancy for starting out and the rack will help to lower the jars in) Someday I would like a pressure cooker because it opens up a whole new door of canning that can't be done in a water bath but baby steps...
2. A canning Kit (I have a Norpro 6 piece canning set but I don't think it is too big of a deal what you get) This will have your Jar lifter, wide mouth funnel, lid tighter, air bubble scrapper, tongs, and a magnet lid lifter.
3. Ball Dissolvable labels (These things are awesome! pretty labels and they wash off in the dishwasher)
4. Ball Mason Jars the size needed for what you are making

Crushed Tomatoes

aprox 3lb tomatoes peeled and crushed

1Tb lemon juice per pint and a half jar

1 tsp sugar per pint and a half jar

1 tsp salt (if desired)

Process in canner for 50-60minutes. 

Homemade Cream of whatever soup

SO there are so many recipes out there that use the cream of whatever condensed soup mix and as convenient as it is to just pop open a can it's not that great for ya. Preservatives alone are yuck, then lets add the fact that its been sitting in a can for a mysterious amount of time slowly adding aluminum to your soup and lets face it more often then not your cream of whatever is very often missing much of that whatever thats suppose to be the main ingredient. SO make it yourself! I promise its super easy AND make it in a big batch and freeze and now you still have the convenience of the can version...well except it taste a million times better and is free of all the yuck!

So I got this recipe from here. I like how she gives you different alternatives for vegans, lactose free, and gluten free which is fun if you need it. She only does one batch at a time I quadruple it and tweak it a little and i get about 6 pint jars out of it to freeze.

So far I have made quadruple batches of cream of chicken, celery, and mushroom.  Today I will show mushroom but you can substitute anything you want, just take out the mushroom and add that same amount of whatever else.

Ingredients:
1-2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
8 cloves of garlic minced
2 small onions, diced
2 cups main ingredient, diced
1 cup or 2 sticks of organic salt-free butter
1 cup of flour
4 cups organic milk
3 cups chicken stock (low sodium)
Salt and pepper to taste

Step 1: is finding your yummy whatevers! I just used button mushrooms for this. DON'T run them under water that will make them tuff, just get a wet clean cloth and brush off any dirt very gently, remove the stems, and dice finely. while your pot is heating up, also dice the onions and mince the garlic.

Step 2: sauté the onions and mushrooms in the olive oil over medium-high heat for about 5-8 minutes till the onions are translucent. Then add the garlic and sauté for another 2-5mins. Don't burn the garlic it will turn bitter. Once they are all cooked to yumminess remove from pot. (if the mushrooms let out a little juice thats ok keep that too, it will add to the yummy flavor)

Step 3: Now you are going to make a ROUX (our fancy word for the day) which basically is the base of a sauce. First melt the butter. Then add the flour. depending on what type of roux you are making will determine how long you cook the flour. (For example if you are making a jumbo you want to cook it pretty dark) For this recipe we want a white sauce so we are not going to cook it too long, maybe 5mins tops. you want it to be a slight blonde color.

Step 4: I like to whisk when I am mixing my four and butter, I think it works better then a spoon, and I use a plastic one so I'm not scraping the bottom of my pot (and then getting the scrapings into my food). This is about the color you are looking for. Now you are going to SLOWLY, AND SERIOUSLY PEOPLE I MEAN SLOWLY, add in the broth. Like a 1/4 cup at a time while stirring and then keep stirring till its all mixed in. It's going to clump into a ball pretty instantly, don't panic! If you panic and pour it all in too fast you will get a very gross clumpy soup. Just take it one 1/4 cup at a time and mix well before each addition to make sure its all incorporated. Once the broth is in add the milk by the same process. once you got that, add back in your main ingredient and simmer for about 10-15mins. Then add salt and pepper to taste

Then you end with this beauty! Now there are several ways to store it. I prefer the pints jars, leaving space at the top. let it cool in the fridge over night then freeze for up to 3 months. You can also put them in zip lock bags instead and follow the same process. You can also put them in the fridge for up to a week if you plan to use it right away. DO NOT CAN! There have been some alterations to the recipe so that you can 'can' it, such as using evaporated milk. I don't like to can milk products though, even with a pressure cooker I just don't recommend it.

When its time to use them, if your on top of it, take it out and put it in the fridge the night before or, if you are not on top of it like me, take it out of the freezer about an hour before dinner and put the jar in a warm water bath to loosen up the soup. Now use it like a normal cream of whatever can of soup!