Water bathing tomatoes

At last I have built up enough tomatoes to make some sauce to use during the winter and so we canned some yesterday. Last summer was the first time that I had tried water bathing tomatoes and I was really nervous.  I couldn’t afford to waste my precious crops and did not want to give the pair of us food poisoning.  However, the jars all sealed properly and we were fine.

What is water bathing?

Water bathing is where you immerse the jars in a pan of hot water and boil. I know that a lot of people do not think that water bathing is safe, especially in the USA, and that preserving should be done in a proper canner.  However in a lot of Europe, and in areas of America where the Amish live, this has been the method of preserving for lots of years.  This is how our ancestors preserved.  There were no canners invented 100 years ago.

What about botulism?

Tomatoes are a great food to start the water bathing journey as they are high in acid which automatically reduces the chance of botulism.  People are really scared of botulism but in fact there are very few instances of botulism reported, and most of those are babies that have been given raw honey before they are a year old.  Our stomach acid is acidic and so kills botulism, but other ways to prevent it are to water bath your preserved food on a rolling boil for long enough, and when you later heat them up, to boil the food for 10 minutes.

Why bother making my own sauce?

Jars of pasta sauce are still fairly cheap at supermarkets but they have a lot of hidden ingredients including a lot of sugar.  It is a great way of using up a glut of tomatoes and getting the benefit of all of your hard work in the garden.  I used to freeze tomatoes and make individual sauces when I needed them but that was time consuming and took up a lot of freezer space.

I like to leave my sauce fairly plain so that I can use it for a variety of meals,  Basically I just use onion, garlic, a pinch of salt and tomatoes.  I then add any vegetables, meat, herbs or spices when I heat the sauce up.  This sauce is great to use for bolognaise, stews, chilli, or in anything that needs a tomato sauce, for example, Mediterranean fish stew.

Do I need loads of tomatoes?

It is obviously cheaper to make large batches due to energy costs, but the first time that I  made it this season, I only had enough for 3 jars. I am therefore not going to put any set amounts for the ingredients here as it will depend how many tomatoes that you have and how much garlic and onion that you want in the recipe.  We also like to roast our tomatoes with the onion and garlic first before canning as it gives a richer flavour.  Some people just boil the tomatoes.  I don’t take the skins off, but I blend the skins in and you can not tell.  Any tomatoes can be used but some, such as Roma tomatoes, are better.  I just use what ever I have.

Do I need lots of equipment?

I don’t have a lot of equipment.  You do need a deep pan.  I use a stock pot that I found in a charity shop.  Recently I bought a gadget to lift the jars out of the hot water when I have finished, but I didn’t have this the first time I water bathed.  You need strong jars with undamaged lids, and a ladle and wide funnel.

Ingredients

Tomatoes

Onion

Garlic

Salt (1 tsp to 2lbs or 1 kilo of tomatoes)

2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice per 2lbs of tomato or 1/2 tsp of citric acid to increase the acidity (both optional.  I do not use either).

Method

1. Wash the tomatoes and remove any stalks or blemishes.
2. Cut the onions into large chunks (so that they do not burn), and peel the garlic cloves.
3. Place them in a non metallic dish, and roast in the oven until the skins of the tomatoes are just colouring and the onion is soft.
4. Mean while, wash the jars in hot soapy water and rinse.  I used mason jars this year as we were gifted some for Christmas.  Last year I used recycled lug lids and  jars of bought sauce saved by family.
5.  I then put the jars into the oven to sterilise and dry off but you could boil them for 10 mins (start the water cold) if the oven is not on.  If you are packing hot sauce into them the jars might crack if they are not warm.
6. Bring the lids of the jars to a simmer in a pan and turn off (but not the rings if using mason jars) but do not boil as it will harm the seals.  I also put boiling water on my funnel and ladle to sterilise them.
7. Once the tomatoes are cook whiz the onion, garlic and tomatoes together using a stick blender.
8. Add the salt and heat the sauce up to a simmer in a sauce pan and add the salt.
9. Meanwhile, place a rack or a towel at the bottom of the deep pan that you are going to use to water bath.
10. Put the jars on a towel or wooden board at the side of your pan with the tomatoes in.
11. When it has come back up to simmering, put the hot sauce into the warm jars using the funnel and the ladle.  You can add the lemon juice and citric acid at this point, but most European recipes do not add it. Leave at least a half inch head space.
12. Wipe the top of the jars and place the lids on top. Put on the rings, but only finger tight.
13.  Place the jars into the deep pan and fill with hot, clean water.  I boiled the kettle and used hot water from the tap.  The water should be a couple of inches above the top of the jars.  If you have a proper canning rack you can just put the jars into that and lower it into a pan of hot water on the stove. My pan was too big for the amount of jars that I had and so I put a tea towel in the middle to stop the jars from falling over.
14.  Place the lid on top of the pan
15. Bring to a rolling boil, not a simmer, but a proper boil.
16. Start timing 35 minutes from now and keep the pan boiling.  If it stops boiling at any time you must bring it back to the boil and continue the timing from when it is boiling again.
17. Once the 35 minutes is over, turn off the heat and leave the jars in the pan for at least 10 minutes.  Taking them straight out can cause a shock to the glass and they could shatter.
18. Take the jars out and place on a towel or wooden board to cool.  Often you can hear the lids popping.
19. I like to leave mine over night as it is recommended that you do not move them for at least 12 hours.
20. Check that the jars are sealed.  I took the rings off and the lids were tight and I could lift the jars up by the lid.  With the lug lids the centre did not press up or down and was sucked down a bit.
21. Label and date the jars and store in a cool, dark place eg. a pantry or cellar.  Do not worry if your sauce separates a little bit.  It sometimes does. This does not mean that it has gone wrong.  Just give it a shake before using.  As long as it is still sealed it is fine.

Sometimes, to save energy, and when I have a large batch of things to water bath, I boil them on a rack on my fire pit in the garden.  It is important to keep the fire fed with wood to maintain the boil.  It also stops my kitchen from steaming up or getting over hot on a summer’s day.  Water bathing does take time and effort but I get such a buzz from  seeing my produce preserved and stored in jars for the winter, it gives me organic food at very low cost, and adds nutrition and interest to our winter food.  Best of all, it keeps me out of the supermarket!