Can you answer these tomato questions?

[Father'sDaughter]

Not sure if it's what you were thinking about, but there was an old thread outlining Brokenbar's method which I had adopted. She (Mary) was a very active member of the forum who specialized in growing and processing pastes varieties. She retired from ranching in Montana, moved to Mexico, and began traveling extensively so we don't hear from her any more.

After you core the tomatoes and run them through the food mill, you put the purée in a tall container and let it sit and separate (I think for 24 hours). Then you siphon out the liquid and minimally cook down the pure before water bath canning it. The safe/recommended practice is to add lemon juice or ascorbic acid.

[zipcode]

You don't need pressure canning or acid to properly preserve tomato juice. It will visibly separate as long as it's watery, I don't really think there's anything you can do about it, it's just gravity. The chunkier the texture the more it will separate. Just shake before use.
Puree the tomatoes any way you want (there are separators that separate the skins and seeds and just give a juice). Blending everything will give a slightly different taste, since crushed seeds have their own taste.

Boil juice.
Take the glass bottles (we use bottles since bottles with screw-in lid are the standard for wine here) and heat them up in the oven at 100C (so they don't crack when you pour the hot juice).
Pour the juice while still hot. Screw the lid on.
Cover all bottles with a blanket to slow cool for one day.
Keeps 2-3 years min.

[Worth1]

Citric acid to acidify and asorbic acid/fruit fresh to preserve color and freshness.

They do not interchange.

Citric acid will not change the flavor like vinegar or lemon juice does.

Worth

[SQWIBB]

Originally Posted by SueCT

I think a lot of us misunderstood as you can see above, that that was all you were looking for. I can't help you with that particular question because I don't think I have ever had it happen in any sauce I have made, but I don't can mine, I freeze it.

I hope I didn't come off sounding annoyed, because I am definitely not, and I am enjoying all the methods/recipes posted and hope they keep coming. It has given me a lot to think about.

Originally Posted by SueCT

I have pressure canned and water bathed. I found the water bath better, I thought they tasted fresher, but I must admit i only did it once or twice so I never developed and expertise at it. That could certainly have effected my results.

That's the feed back I was looking for on #3, I'm a bit worried quality will suffer on pressure canning.


Taboule in post #2 says, "I assure you from experience, that technique (PC) does not harm taste, nor turn the tomatoes into mush".


B54RED in post#5 states that, "We have found that the longer you cook down your tomatoes the more you lose that nice fresh tomato flavor"


I may try doing my stewed tomatoes under pressure (no lemon juice)


Making salsa isn't a problem because salsa usually calls for lime juice and lime juice can be substituted for lemon juice when canning.

[SQWIBB]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Citric acid to acidify and asorbic acid/fruit fresh to preserve color and freshness.

They do not interchange.

Citric acid will not change the flavor like vinegar or lemon juice does.

Worth

That's great info and exactly what I am looking for in #3, so if I do decide on water bath canning, citric acid will not affect the flavor profile of the tomato.

[SQWIBB]

Originally Posted by zipcode

You don't need pressure canning or acid to properly preserve tomato juice. It will visibly separate as long as it's watery, I don't really think there's anything you can do about it, it's just gravity. The chunkier the texture the more it will separate. Just shake before use.
Puree the tomatoes any way you want (there are separators that separate the skins and seeds and just give a juice). Blending everything will give a slightly different taste, since crushed seeds have their own taste.

I dont know if I agree with that, totally, I have made sauce, froze that never separated but other times I made it it would separate.

Originally Posted by zipcode

Boil juice.
Take the glass bottles (we use bottles since bottles with screw-in lid are the standard for wine here) and heat them up in the oven at 100C (so they don't crack when you pour the hot juice).
Pour the juice while still hot. Screw the lid on.
Cover all bottles with a blanket to slow cool for one day.
Keeps 2-3 years min.

I can say I do not agree with that at all, sorry. Some tomatoes are less acidic than others and can not be canned safely in that manner.

[SQWIBB]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Not sure if it's what you were thinking about, but there was an old thread outlining Brokenbar's method which I had adopted. She (Mary) was a very active member of the forum who specialized in growing and processing pastes varieties. She retired from ranching in Montana, moved to Mexico, and began traveling extensively so we don't hear from her any more.

After you core the tomatoes and run them through the food mill, you put the purée in a tall container and let it sit and separate (I think for 24 hours). Then you siphon out the liquid and minimally cook down the pure before water bath canning it. The safe/recommended practice is to add lemon juice or ascorbic acid.

I really like that idea but I think you mean "citric acid" in place of "ascorbic acid".

[SQWIBB]

Originally Posted by EarlyBird

Using some olive oil and/or butter (ala Marcella Hazan) and even a bit of grated Parmesan cheese will help emulsify the sauce, not only adding a lot of flavor and mouth feel, but reduce the separation. But there will be some due to the water content.

That sounds good. I'll try that if I'm doing a frozen batch. I usually add Parmesan when reheating and it does help.

[SQWIBB]

I have some tomato powder I made last year dehydrating a batch of tomatoes and running through a coffee mill that I use as a soup/stew/ sauce thickener, I wonder if I added this to a sauce and canned it if it would not separate.




Looks like its time to start experimenting.


I'm gonna start with,

• Roasting (my old method) and pressure canning for Sauce

• For Stewed tomatoes water bath (citric acid) (celery and green pepper will be added)

• For Salsa, I'll do the water bath (lime juice)

• This sauce was roasted, with some skin still intact and never separated.

• I Froze these batches.

• This batch was roasted with some garden veggies and onions.

• This was frozen then later used for Sausage sandwiches, man was it good. I would have to pressure can this because of the other ingredients. I usually roast (reduce) down to about 50%

Just checked my notes on roasting and my earlier post was wrong,it is actually 5 hours at 275°F. I tried roasting at 300° for three hours and liked the higher temp roast better.

[Worth1]

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=42289

Container Ted the master.
PM him for any information you may need.
This is not to discredit anybody here that has given advice also.
Worth

[brownrexx]

Lemon juice is added to tomatoes for water bath canning because some of the newer varieties do not contain as much acid as they used to so Ball added the instruction to add lemon juice to all tomatoes just in case someone tries to can some that are not acidic enough to be safe.

I don't can anymore, I skin and then chop my tomatoes into containers and freeze them. No lemon juice or salt needed and they taste nice and fresh.

I also make and freeze spaghetti sauce in quart mason jars for easy use in the winter. I struggled for years with the sauce separating once we put it onto the pasta. Now when I prepare the tomatoes I skin them and squeeze with my hands over a colander. This removes some of the juice and a lot of the water but I get a nice fresh tomato flavor in the resulting product. I allow the mashed up tomatoes to drain in the colander for about an hour before adding to the rest of my sauce ingredients and simmering for about 1/2 hr.

Now when we add my sauce to pasta there is no watery ring around the outside of the plate.

[Nan_PA_6b]

When you thaw a frozen raw whole tomato, a good bit of clear liquid comes out. It's easy to squeeze them to get more liquid out. Then you can lightly cook the tomato meat, plus cook down the clear stuff longer to reduce it.

[taboule]

>>> Taboule in post #2 says, "I assure you from experience, that technique (PC) does not harm taste, nor turn the tomatoes into mush".

B54RED in post#5 states that, "We have found that the longer you cook down your tomatoes the more you lose that nice fresh tomato flavor"

>>>

I agree with B54RED's experience, and dont see the contradiction between the two statements. Pressure cooking sealed jars for 10-15 minutes isn't the same thing as cooking sauce for a couple hours in an open pot.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by SQWIBB

I really like that idea but I think you mean "citric acid" in place of "ascorbic acid".

Yes. I personally don't use either it or lemon juice.

[SQWIBB]

Originally Posted by taboule

>>> Taboule in post #2 says, "I assure you from experience, that technique (PC) does not harm taste, nor turn the tomatoes into mush".

B54RED in post#5 states that, "We have found that the longer you cook down your tomatoes the more you lose that nice fresh tomato flavor"

>>>

I agree with B54RED's experience, and dont see the contradiction between the two statements. Pressure cooking sealed jars for 10-15 minutes isn't the same thing as cooking sauce for a couple hours in an open pot.

That makes total sense, I see that folks are still using lemon juice or citric acid for pressure canning.
I guess it has to do with the shorter cook time?