Tomato Canning Recipes

My tomatoes have been slow to ripen, but very soon I think I will be bombarded with tomatoes!  I’ve already tried out a few new canning recipes and thought that I would share them with you here.

Photo courtesy of Paula

Aunt Ione’s Bloody Mary Mix Canning Recipe by Paula at Food.com
This recipe called for 30 medium tomatoes.  Since I was mostly using Roma tomatoes, I used about 55-60 of them.  They were pretty small.  I only ended up getting three quarts from this recipe plus about a half of a pint that I just put in the frig to use soon.  Since I don’t like Bloody Mary’s, I had Kevin give it a taste test and he said that it was just right.  He likes to doctor up his Bloody Mary’s so this left him room to do that!

I’m hoping to make a few more batches soon.  This will be great for tailgating this fall!

Fireball Pickled Tomatoes by Jill Miller on the News-Gazette website
I don’t have a picture of this yet, since I haven’t gotten around to making these, but they sounded quite interesting!  They would be an excellent garnish to the Bloody Mary mix that I mentioned above!

Hot ‘n’ Sweet Chili Sauce from my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Makes about four pint jars

Ingredients
1/4 cups pickling spice (can be purchased in the spice section of your grocery store)
6 cups chopped, cored, peeled tomatoes (I used Romas)
2 small peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1 pear, peeled, cored and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
6-8 chili peppers, such as jalapeño, Serrano, cayenne or Fresno, seeded and finely chopped (I used jalapeños)

1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup sultana raisins (golden raisins)
4 teaspoons salt
Cheesecloth

Directions

1. Tie pickling spice in a large square of cheesecloth, creating a spice bag.
2. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine tomatoes, peaches, apple, pear, onion, red pepper, hot peppers, vinegar, sugar, raisins, salt and spice bag.  Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until thick enough to mound on a spoon, about 1 1/2 hours (this took me more like 3 hours).  Discard spice bag.
3. Meanwhile, prepare canner, jars and lids according to your canner instruction book.
4. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot sauce.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
5. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 20 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.  

This sweet and spicy chili sauce adds a delightful zing to barbecued chicken or pork.

Green Salsa (this recipe is from Kevin’s brother-in-law’s mother)

Ingredients
12 large jalapeños (may want to use less jalapeños if you don’t want a super spicy salsa!)
1 lb. tomatillos
6 large cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons of white vinegar
1 large onion (sweet yellow), peeled and quartered
1-2 cans diced tomatoes
salt

Directions

1. Remove husks from tomatillos and boil until they turn from dark green to light green (or yellow). Drain and allow to cool.
2. Blend tomatillos thoroughly in a blender.
3. Roast peppers, garlic and onion on a piece of foil on an outdoor grill (or a 500 degree oven) until browned.  (Note: garlic is easy to peel if you put it in the microwave for 15 seconds and then let it cool until it can be handled.)
4. Place peppers, garlic and onion in blender with a can of diced tomatoes and blend well.  Transfer to a bowl and add vinegar and salt.  If mixture is too thick, blend another can of diced tomatoes and add to bowl.  Salsa will thicken in the refrigerator.