Learn how to can strained tomatoes and preserve your homegrown tomatoes into something you can enjoy throughout winter!

This post contains affiliate links: I am grateful to be of service and bring you content free of charge. In order to do this, please note that when you click links and purchase items; in some (but not all) cases I will receive a referral commission. Your support in purchasing through these links enables me to keep blogging to help you start homesteading and it doesn’t cost you a penny extra!

See Disclosure, Terms and Conditions for more information.   Thank you for supporting Misfit Gardening.

 

How to Make Strained Tomatoes

This method of canning tomatoes makes up the bulk of our pantry and we enjoy it throughout the year.  Homemade strained tomatoes are the basis of so many meals from spaghetti to chili and since we eat a lot of Mediterranean or Southwestern foods, having strained tomatoes on hand makes cooking from scratch a breeze. Learning to can strained tomatoes yourself means you can preserve your homegrown tomatoes to enjoy time and time again without needing to eat an insipid, tasteless grocery store tomato again!

The Right Variety

If you are wanting to grow tomatoes for canning or sauce then you need to use the right variety of tomatoes.  Salad, slicing, and beefsteak tomatoes all contain a lot of water.  This means that you will need to cook down your strained tomato sauce longer so that it is thicker.  This runs the risk of overcooking when you are canning.

When looking to grow tomatoes for canning,, look for paste tomato varieties.  These have less water in the fruits, making them perfect for sauces and canning.

Paste Tomato Varieties for Strained Tomatoes

There’s so much variety available with open-pollinated seeds, here are some favorites we grow each year just for canning or turning into a sauce.

• Amish Paste
• Jersey Devil
• Roma VF
• Principe Borghese
• Ten Fingers of Naples

How to make strained tomatoes

Now you know what tomatoes you should be using, let’s get canning!

Tomatoes are borderline acid food and can be canned in a water bath canner if lemon juice or citric acid has been added.  Decide if you want to can strained tomatoes in quart jars or in pint jars.  

Start preparing your jars, lids, and the water bath canner for preserving.

1.  Prepare the tomatoes

Wash tomatoes and dip in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds or until skins split. Then dip in cold water slip off skins, and remove cores.   With a knife, remove the seeds and all the inner parts of the tomato.  This inner part is very watery, therefore it would make the strained tomatoes too liquid. Trim off any bruised or discolored portions and quarter.

Homesteader Tip: place the seeds into a large container and save the seeds!

2. Heat them up

Place your skinned and cored tomatoes into a large saucepan or cooking pot.  Let them cook over low heat, covering the pot with a lid and stirring from time to time until they are smashed up and breaking down.  You will find that quite a bit of liquid will come out of the tomatoes as they break apart.

3.  Strained tomatoes

Here’s the part you have been waiting for, making strained tomatoes!  You can buy a fancy metal tomato strainer and I would recommend investing in one if you plan on making strained tomatoes from scratch on either a regular basis or in large quantities.  

If you don’t have a metal tomato strainer available – don’t panic!  You can use a food mill or even a kitchen strainer or sieve.

Ladle the tomatoes a small portion at a time into the strainer, mill, or sieve.  Push the tomatoes through the mesh working in batches and collect the strained tomatoes with a bowl or another saucepan.

4.  Heat and jar

Place the strained tomatoes into a saucepan then boil gently for 5 minutes.   Whilst the tomatoes are boiling, prepare the jars by adding either bottled lemon juice or citric acid.  The amount you need depends on the size of the jar you are canning.

• Pints: use 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon citric acid
• Quarts: use 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon citric acid

If you want, you can also add salt to the jars to help with flavor and preservation.

• Pints: add 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Quarts: add 1 teaspoon salt

Fill the jars with hot tomatoes, leaving a 1/2 inch headspace.  Wipe the jar rims with a clean, damp cloth and place the lids on the jars, and screw on the bands.

5.  Can the jars

Place jars in the water bath canner on a rack.  Make sure there is at least 1 inch of water above the tops of the jars.

Bring the canner back up to boil and process the jars based on the jar size and your altitude.

0 – 1000 ft elevation

• Pints: process for 35 mins
• Quarts: process for 45 mins

1001 – 3000 ft elevation

• Pints: process for 40 mins
• Quarts: process for 50 mins

3001 – 6000 ft elevation

• Pints: process for 45 mins
• Quarts: process for 55 mins

Above 6000 ft elevation

• Pints: process for 50 mins
• Quarts: process for 60 mins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.  Cool the jars

Once the processing time for canning has finished, remove the jars and place them on a towel somewhere that they can stand undisturbed for up to 24 hours whilst they cool down.  When they are cool, label the jar and place it in your homestead pantry and enjoy!

Learn More

Dig in and learn more about canning:

• How Canning Preserves Your Food
• Safe Canning Basics
• Canning Equipment You Really Need
• Best Homemade Canned Tomatoes Recipes

Learn more about growing a homestead garden:

• Growing Heirloom Tomatoes From Seed Step By Step
• 10 Tasty Tomato Varieties You Should Be Growing
• How To Start A Vegetable Garden From Scratch In 6 Easy Steps
• The 1 Thing You Need To Do To Start Your Bio Intensive Garden Right

I want to hear from you!  Let me know what recipes you love to use strained tomatoes in!  Let me know in the comments or over in the Facebook Group!

Liked this post?  Pin it and save it for later!

 

Always ensure to operate safely.  All projects are purely “at your own risk” and are for information purposes only. As with any project, unfamiliarity with the tools, animals, plants, and processes can be dangerous.  Posts, podcasts, and videos should be read and interpreted as theoretical advice only and are not a substitute for advice from a fully licensed professional.

As remuneration for running this blog, this post contains affiliate links. Misfit Gardening is a participant in Affiliate or Associate’s programs. An affiliate advertising program is designed to provide a means for this website/blog to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to websites offering products described in the blog post.  It does not cost you the Reader anything extra. See Disclosures, Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy for more information about use of this website.