20 lbs. of San Marzano Tomatoes Preserved - Check!

I have been waiting for the San Marzano tomatoes all summer. At the farm stand where I frequent they grown an heirloom variety of the Roma called the San Marzano, this variety is the tops for sauce. I love them, they have a thinner skin, less seeds and are a little less acidic. I loaded up my car with a flat and headed for home.

I see why the call if Labor Day, there was not much rest going on around here this weekend. I thought I would lounge around and recover from my cold, but my daughter came home from college with friends and my husband invited friends over for a BBQ. Plus I already had the tomatoes waiting for me to preserve. It was a long, but worth the effort weekend.

Here are the beautiful tomatoes I found.

For preserving the tomatoes you just need a few things:
A large stockpot full of boiling water
A large bowl full of ice water
Lemon juice or distilled white vinegar
Kosher or pickling salt (not iodized)
A large pot for canning the jars

Sterilize all your jars and lids with boiling water and set aside. 

To Remove the Skins:

Put a large pot of water on to boil and cut X's in the bottom of each tomato. Place about 20 tomatoes at a time into the boiling water for two minutes or so, remove and place the tomatoes into a bowl filled with ice water. Peel.

Or you can cut the tomatoes in half and lay them single layer on a baking sheet that is lined with parchment or a silpat mat and bake in a 425 degree F oven for 10 minutes.

Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice (or vinegar either works fine) and 1 teaspoon salt to a clean Mason jar. Add about 20 tomatoes per jar or until 1/2" from the top of the jar. Make sure and pack down and all the air bubbles are out, you can stick a chopstick in there to get any air bubbles out. Wipe the top of the jar with a clean cloth and place lid on and band.

***I thought I would clarify that the 1/2" of head space applies to the tomato sauce too, if you are canning it.***

Fill the rest of the jars, I ended up with 7 full 1 quart jars.

You will need a large pot like this one for the canning process, mine is a tamale pot I use at Christmas. They are really inexpensive at a Mexican grocery store and already have a rack on the bottom, which is necessary for suspending the jars.

You can use any pot if it is tall enough to cover the jars with boiling water by about 2 inches. I like to fill the pot about 2/3 of the way with water and bring it to a boil so it's ready when I am. 

Add the jars to the boiling water and leave in for 45 minutes. Remove jars from the hot water with a jar lifter and place on the counter on a towel to cool. You will hear them pop and that's good, it means they are sealed. If you don't hear the pop, press down on the center it shouldn't give and that also means they are sealed.

If your jars don't seal, you can trying placing them back in the hot water for a bit and try again. Sometimes on rare occasion I've gotten a bad lid that didn't seal, but most times they work.

Happy Canning,

Gina