Playing Works for Me Wednesday with Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer. My tip has to do with canning tomatoes. (See my post Owlhaven » This morning!) For years I canned via the traditional route, ie, blanch the tomatoes, skin them, quarter them, and pack into jars. Very time-consuming.
Then I realized– light bulb!!–the first thing I always do when opening a jar to make my own spaghetti sauce is puree the tomatoes in the blender, because my kids like their sauce smooth, not chunky. Why not puree the tomatoes before I even can them, entirely skipping the tedious steps of blanching and peeling every single tomato?
Turns out, it works great! Now all I do is cut tops and blemishes off, then half and toss the tomatoes in the blender, skin and all. Super fast, super easy. Once they are pureed, you can’t even see the skin. I heat the puree on the stove til simmering, pour the puree into jars, and can via boiling water bath for 35 minutes (quarts).
Two packets of spaghetti seasoning thickens one quart of tomatoes quite nicely, and with the convenience of having the tomatoes already pureed, I make spaghetti sauce almost as quickly as if I had bought a ready-made jar at the store.
Works for me!
I'm Mary, wife to John, and mom to 10 kids ages 3-20. Six of them were adopted, from Ethiopia and Korea. I spend my days applying Bandaids, reminding kids to use their inside voices, persuading kids fractions are useful, cooking spicy ethnic food, and snapping gig after gig of pictures. Very late at night, I write about it all.
Wow that is really ambitious, I thought only people in Utah (where I’m from) canned anymore. I don’t even know if canned is the correct word lol. It just seems like a lot of work but it’s great that someone still knows how.
I’ve never tried canning tomatoes. I love your idea of pureeing them first!
Thanks for sharing.
I’ve posted a WFMW tip as well, involving an alternate use for a pot rack. Stop by and take a peek.
I love this tip – as canning tomatos will be my next project. You see I am “learning” to can this summer. So far we have pickles and strawberry jam. The jam is good – the pickles we just did so have to wait a while to see how they turn out.
This sounds yummy! May have to try it. Your garden’s prolific bounty makes me dream of a garden out back.
Thanks for the tip! Made me hungry….lol
Oh man what a great idea!!!! it takes forever blanhing them. And I use mine for pasta sauce anyway! Thanks for the time saving idea!!!!!!!
And to sarkastic’s comment, my mom about fell over when I told her I was canning tomatoes & strawberry jam… lol.
I remember the year my mom got that same “a-ha” for our family. I was so glad, because it saved us all steps in the canning process. I liked running them through the blender! I miss those days. I’ve been salivating over your fresh vegetables, especially all that lovely corn. Kudos to you, Mary for carrying on a mostly lost tradition of canning and preserving delicious food for your family.
I posted about canning strawberries on my blog earlier this week, mostly griping what a production it was. But this…this I could handle! I might have to give it a try, because we use pasta/spaghetti sauce at least twice a week in this house! Thanks!
I grew up canning, and occasionally help y mom do it still. I love the idea of not having to go through all the extra steps. Will have to pss it on to Mom.
Sounds yummy, when is dinner again =))
And I’ll bet it tastes a LOT better than the bottled stuff! Great tip. Anything that saves steps in the kitchen works for me, too.
So glad you posted this tip, Mary. It’s never occurred to me to leave the skins on. I’m canning tomatoes today and am leaving this set of skins on. Thanks…very timely for me.
I bet your sauce rocks! I’m coming for dinner.
When I was still canning, I usually did tomato pieces in quarts, and the puree in pints. When it came time to make pasta sauce, I opened one of each for the kettle. We like chunks, tho.
It’s nice that you are able to do it for your own family, and not pay at the store.
They charge more for chunky sauce, probably because of that extra work.
Although, with automated machines, one wonders where the pennies need to be going.
A few years ago, I was at work talking about how a friend had allowed me to pick the grapes from her vine in her backyard because she just didn’t feel like doing grapes that year.
I managed to put up 9 jars of jelly on a Sunday afternoon.
One of the part-timer college students looked at me in Horror!
“Is that really SAFE?” she asked. “Do you expect your family to eat it?”
I am hoping to have to do this soon, for my very first time. I have many tomatoes in the garden, and my friend has promised to help me can them. I will do some of them this way!
Now that IS a great discovery! My mother grows so. many. tomatoes. She’ll be thrilled to receive this handy tip!
I really think I am going to do some canning this year. I have loved seeing your pictures! Great tip for the tomatoes.
Well, gee, that sounds so easy I’d even try it (I usually just buy the pre-made sauce
). What a wonderful idea! Have a great Wednesday – our WFMW tip is up as well!
Thanks for the tip, I was going to do some soon, now it’ll be much quicker!
I love you. Now, hopefully my MIL & FIL will have some tomatoes for me to experiment on. Hahaha!!! Sure beats blanching and peeling and processing 2 1/2 bushels of tomatoes in 2 days.
I’ll bet your spaghetti sauce is much more healthful (and tastier!) than the store-bought stuff. (And am I the only one who finds it funny that putting food in jars is called “canning”?) ;^)
Thanks for the tip; I’ll be using it tonight.
Great idea! I’m going to try this.
The ether-vibrates,or whatever it is, must be clear and tense lately because I just canned 72 quarts of tomatos and zukes last night (all night) and this morning I thought about all those skins I removed again this year, as every year for decades, and how much food value I was porting back out to the vegi-garden as organic mulch when it is surely digestible and greatly flavorful. “Why”, I asked myself today several times, “do we blanch and skin these babies? Why not cuisinart them all first and then can them with the ‘mato innards?” Decided to look in the ‘net and see if anyone had tried it and, lo…. you have, bless your heart. With your experience, I am embolden to do the same. But I see no need to cook them all up first before canning them, since they will be cooked in the pressure canner and again when it is spagetti sauce time. Is there a reason you did it the way you did? Would there be a difference, if the whole tomatos were slushed raw and then canned from room temperature the way we do with them after having peeled them? Why the extra step, since we are paring down the needless processing steps? Thanks for your daring and successful experiment and the encouragement it gives all the rest of us. You are a cultural hero. Brava !
Last son left for college and daughter and son in law and all my grandbabies are moving 15 hours away……….. and I am really feeling the empty nest…………..I have canned all my life and stopped due to busy schedules 5 years ago……this past week I have canned everything in sight and I believe we { hubby and I] now have a basement shelf full of jars filled with everything that could be canned……french onion soup..split pea soup.stewed tomatoes…….tomatoe sauce……. green tomatoes……..beets…..and of course BEET JELLY……veggie soup………relish in every form……………… so my point os all this …….THANKS SO MUCH……a new idea with the blender to keep me busy tomorrow…….