I had a few leftover tomatoes from my garden that I did not cook. We only grew a few tomatoes this year, mostly grape tomatoes. Only one plant grew larger tomatoes, but with the early heat, they haven’t grown very big. Tomatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to can as with the addition of a small amount of vinegar, citric acid or lemon juice they are suitable for water bath canning.

To can tomatoes with a water bath canning you first need to gather a few ingredients like your tomatoes, acidifier, some large bowls and pots, your water bath canner, a canning funnel, canning tongs, a dipper, a paring knife, and a small chopping block. Get a canning recipe that is certified by the USDA or one of the Ball or Good Housekeeping canning books. I personally like Canning & Preserving: 80+ Simple Small-batch Recipes by Good Housekeeping for easy to do pickles and the big Ball book of hundreds of canning recipes that came out a few years ago. For pressure canning, I usually refer to the USDA canning website.

For water bath canning, put enough hot water in the canner to come up to 2/3rds of the height of your jars. Use canning jars and new lids. You can reuse the bands and jars and buy just the lids as needed. Most of my jars and bands were bought very cheaply at an estate sale. Wash your jars and fill them with hot water and place in the canner. Fill the canner until the water covers the jars by about a half inch. Cover with the lid and turn on the heat on your largest burner and bring the water slowly to a boil.

Once you have determined a recipe that fits your amounts of produce, then it’s time to prepare the produce. For tomatoes, I like to put a few at a time into boiling water for 90 seconds to 2 minutes. This causes the skins to pull away from the meat of the tomato and makes them very easy to peel. After they are peeled, then I cut them up and add the recommended amount of acidifier. Tomatoes are borderline acid enough for water bath canning and the acidifier makes sure they are safe.

Now is the time to put some water in a small sauce pot. Bring to a boil and place your lids in it. Let them boil for about 20 minutes. This should sterilize them.

Place the chopped tomatoes into a large stainless steel pot for cooking. Cook at a boil until the desired amount of water is removed. Cooking enough will cause the tomatoes to thicken. I usually cook until the tomatoes are thicker than they started out, but thinner than tomato sauce. Once the tomatoes are ready, take your jars out of the canner with canning tongs, emptying some of them in the sink as the water will be replaced with jar contents. Turn up the heat in the canner until you reach a boil.

Place the canning funnel over a jar and scoop tomatoes and fill the jar to the recommended height. Each recipe should indicate how high the contents should be in the jar. Remove the funnel, wipe the rim of the jar, place a lid on the jar, and hand tighten a band. Repeat until all of the jars are filles or all of your tomatoes have been used. Place the jars in the canner (it should already be at a boil) for the recommended time in the recipe.

Once the time has been reached, remove the jars from the canner and let them sit on the counter until cool. Space the jars apart to let air flow between them. You may hear the lids crack as the vacuum forms to seal them. You may need to tighten any loose band. Try not to disturb the lids, and a strong vacuum forms mostly when the contents have cooled. Label the lids and use as needed. They should last 12 to 18 months when stored in a dark pantry.