Tomato help....please!!!!!!

[hillaryef]

Tomatoes...yikes!!

Two questions:

1) I have a really good recipe fir spaghetti sauce that calls for 56 oz of diced tomatoes (with most of the seeds gone...I think...doesn't seem line there are a lot of tomato seeds and stuff in the can??). I'd love to make it with fresh tomatoes but I can figure out how. When I pour the can in I have enough juice between the tomatoes and liquid they are canned with.

So...I know when it calls for 56 oz that means tomatoes + liquid. But I gave NO idea what to do.

2) we have so many large tomatoes in our garden...I am not a fan of tomatoes at all but DH lives for this time of year. In past years it hasn't mattered bc we have only gotten few large ones. I know I can save some for canning. But I dont think I have enough (although I just got my canning set for my birthday in July...so I don't know exactly how much you have to have?)


ANY HELP you can give me would be appreciated!! Reps of course !

-hill

[contessa2424]

Hillary,
I cant help you with the tomato sauce cause I have never done it but you could use your tomatoes to make fresh (or canned) salsa. I do this with my many tomatoes. It's really simple, just cut up your tomatoes add onion and hot pepper and a little salt. ( onions and pepper are to taste, some people like it hot so they add more, some not so much). My family eats the salsa with chips and we all loovvvveee it!!! Then if you really have alot you can also can it. Just put it in jars and add a tsp of canning salt and can it! Hope that helps you a little!

[Mama Stu]

I think if you peeled and then diced your tomatoes, can them in quarts and pints. One quart and one pint would give you 48 ozs. I think that would get you close enough to work. Or you could always do a double batch because 2 quarts and 3 pints should get you 112 oz.s and then you could freeze one batch of the sauce. Hope that helps and didn't just confuse you more.

[hillaryef]

here's my thing...when I peel the tomatoes and such...I don't seem to get the juices to make the spaghetti sauce? I wish I knew how to do spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes :-(

[CW&M Mom]

My questions:

are you trying to can the spaghetti sauce? Or just make it?

What kind of tomatoes are you using?




As for how many to can whole...there really isn't a requirement other then you want to be able to fill at least one jar. Last year I only filled 3 jars....BUT you either have to have tomatoes that can be canned that have the right ph level (right acidic level) or you have to add stuff to it to make it the right ph level.

[Mama Stu]

here's my thing...when I peel the tomatoes and such...I don't seem to get the juices to make the spaghetti sauce? I wish I knew how to do spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes :-(

If you are wanting to make the sauce from fresh tomatoes, then you could just measure out your 56oz of tomatoes and be fine. They will create some juice as they are cooked down. Or if you really wanted to, you could add a small amount of tomato juice, or sauce, whatever you might have on hand. Cooking with tomatoes doesn't have to be exact. The juice in the canned tomatoes are just created by the tomatoes themselves, or possibly had a dab of water added to them.

[Kulis]

Canning Across America (Ball® Canning Recipes) has some tomato recipes for beginners.
Besides the obvious salsa or sauce, you might try roasting the tomatoes. Small ones work best. I use cherry or grape tomatoes. Just halve them, place them on a foil-lined cookie sheet cut-side up, drizzle with olive oil, add a few cloves of garlic, and roast for about 2 hours at 300 degrees. They're great with crusty bread. You can also freeze the roasted tomatoes and later drop them into soups or sauces.

[TiggerToo]

It also depends on what type of tomatoes you have. Roma's are not very "juicy" tomatoes, so if you have an abundance of those growing in your garden, you wont' have a high "sauce" concentration when you are simmering your tomatoes for a sauce. They need to be your regular big boy tomatoes or your standard tomatoes to get enough liquid for an actual sauce. Most of the time, I will take half of my tomatoes and cook them down and them puree them in order to get my sauce, and then take the other half and just coarsely chop them in order to get the chunks that my hubs likes.

HTH