In the past people has asked how to can tomatoes in mason jars. I canned tomatoes yesterday and took some pics and kept track of my time. This is a process not a recipe so I assume the thread belongs her not in recipes.
I started off with several different types of tomatoes, Beef Steak, Big Beef, Beef Master, Jet Star, German Johnson. I wash the tomatoes and throw out any tomatoe that is more than 1/2 bad it is a waste of time to salvage a small piece of tomato.
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Next I cut the tomatoes in pieces and cut off bad places and the core.
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All the tomatoes go into two 3 gallon pots to cook until they boil.
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After the tomatoes boil I skim off the skins and save the juice that drips off the skins as they drain. This is a much faster way to remove skins than dipping each tomatoe in hot water 1 at a time. Now the tomatoes are ready to put in jars. Up to this point I have 1 hr 5 minutes work in this project.
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Now I put the tomatoes in mason jars. I fill the jars up to the bottom edge of the funnel. The canning book says to add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each jar but I never do that. My wife is watching her salt because of high blood pressure and I like to season vegatable soup, chili, other soups, sauces and other things at the time they are made. If the salt is already in the tomatoes I can not get it out if a recipe calls for less salt.
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Now I put on the lids. I never boil lids of jars. I rinse the dust off the jars and make sure the seal lip of the jar is not chipped. Screw on the rings and place all the jars in pots with about 1/2" of water above the top of the jars. Up to this point I have 1 hr 45 minutes work in this project.
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Next I boil all the jars for 20 minutes. I don't use a pressure cooker on tomatoes. It takes 20 minutes for both the water bath and pressure cooker to boil. It takes 20 minutes for the pressure cooker to come up to pressure and the water bath is already finished by then. It takes another 10 minutes for the pressure cooker to cook 10 minutes. It saves me time not to use the pressure cooker plus I only have 1 large pressure cooker. I don't have to hang around for this I can do other things. I have 2 hrs 5 minutes work it this project. I have learned to do this faster over the year just from practice.
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After the jars all cook for 20 minutes I turn off the heat and let them set. In about 5 hours they will be cool. Remove the jars from the pot, rinse, dry, label with date, store in pantry. I have 22 pints of tomatoes on this batch. Next time I will do all quarts.
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I try not to keep tomatoes in the pantry longer than 5 years. Tomatoes in a freezer would have freezer burn after 1 year plus I would have to pay for electricity for that freezer too. Salt in the tomatoes is suppose to keep them from turning brown after 5 years. I have all the jars dated and I have nothing in the pantry older than 3 years most of the time. The tomatoes taste just as good as the day they were picked in the garden.
I can other things. I canned 65 pints of green beans last summer and still have 30 cans in the pantry so I won't can many beans this year. I have 6 jars of blackberry jam from last year and 10 quarts of apple pie filling from the year before. I still have 6 jars of taco sauce from several years ago I might can some taco sauce this year.
My canning book says, for high acid tomatoes process in boiling water bath or pressure cooker. Cook time for cold pack in hot water bath is, 45 minutes for quarts and 35 minutes for pints. Cook time for hot pack in hot water bath is 30 min for qt and 25 min for pt. When using a pressure cooker with 15 lbs of pressure times can be reduced by 10 minutes. When canning low acid tomatoes on vinegar or citric acid is needed if canned in a pressure cooker 15 lbs. for 45 minutes.