Summer Tomato Canning Projects

You never know what will happen with gardening, since it is so dependent on the weather. This year in the Midwest, we had too much rain, then it was too hot, then it was too cold, then we had more rain.  So … our harvests are smaller than normal, and definitely later.

Normally, August is filled with tomato projects. This August, we didn’t even really get any ripe tomatoes until near the end of the month.

Nonetheless, the August category of the Food in Jars challenge was for tomatoes, so I managed to get a few things done.

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

The first thing I made was ketchup. I cheat when I make my homemade ketchup, and I use canned diced tomatoes from the store. Sometimes I get the gallon ones from Sam’s Club, this year I got some smaller cans from Aldi. They were organic and reasonably priced.

Safe canning regulations from NCHFP actually say that you shouldn’t re-process commercially processed foods. I pay close attention to safe canning practices and follow approved recipes. Botulism is no joke! But in this case, I do make my ketchup from commercially canned tomatoes.  You can do your own research and make your own decision as to your comfort level with this.

I actually wrote about making ketchup in a bit more detail last year if you want to check that out too. Anyway, I follow a slightly adjusted version of this recipe from FreshPreserving.com.

When we talk about “slightly adjusting” recipes, it’s important to note that you don’t want to adjust the amount(s) of fruits, vegetables, or acid in a recipe. Generally speaking in most cases, adjusting the amount of sugar and DRY herbs and spices is ok. I can tell you that one adjustment I almost always make in everything is to use less sugar than the recipe calls for.

Anyway, we were on our last jar of ketchup and it was time to make a new batch.  We also use our ketchup as a base for some BBQ sauces my husband makes. Once you make ketchup, it’s very hard to eat commercially made ketchup again, let me tell ya’.

Tomato Jam

So, the second thing I made in August with the first batch of ripe tomatoes from the garden was Amy’s Tomato Jam from Food In Jars. This stuff is so good. I always tend to forget about it in the pantry, and when I find it and open a jar, I eat it on everything for two weeks while I rave about how good it is.  I would describe it as a cross between apple butter and ketchup, but it’s a bit chunky.

Tomato jam is great on crackers with cheese (goat cheese is amazing, but cream cheese is also good.)  It’s good as a basting sauce for grilled meat, or in place of ketchup on a hamburger.

As I always do when I make jam, I used my Lodge Enameled 4.6-quart Dutch Oven. I haven’t yet scorched a batch of anything using this pot.

This tomato jam cooks for 1.5 to 2 hours by the time it’s the right thickness because it doesn’t use pectin – so having a pot that keeps low and even temperature is important. As is a stool to sit on and perhaps a glass of wine to sip while you stir.

 

 

I made some BLTs for dinner one day and mixed some tomato jam with some mayonnaise as the sauce for the sandwich. The sandwich also had fried green tomatoes on it, and we had some sauteed shishito peppers on the side. It rocked. Homemade Air Fryer French Fries would also be good on the side of this sandwich creation!

Zesty Tomato Salsa

Normally in August or September, we make a giant batch of salsa. I’m talking a batch that fills up the largest pot we own.  We do the same thing with spaghetti sauce.

This year, I’m not sure if we will have enough tomatoes for a large batch of either thing, so I made a batch of Zesty Salsa from FreshPreserving.com.  We usually have a slightly different recipe we use, so this was my first time making this one.

I did cook it for a lot longer than the 10 minutes the recipe says – I’m not sure how they think it will thicken properly in 10 minutes. I cooked it for about an hour. When it neared the end of cooking time, I pulsed it briefly with my immersion blender. We like the texture of ours to be more like Mexican restaurant salsa, not as much like chunky salsa. It worked great.

We added some cumin to it, otherwise followed the recipe.  It is tasty!

Just a side note, usually my husband and I do our BIG batches of salsa and spaghetti sauce together, and we love our Victorio Deluxe Food Strainer and Sauce Maker. I didn’t use it for the above batch of salsa since it was just a small batch – but when you are talking big batches of tomatoes, this thing rocks.

Green Tomatoes before it Freeze

We have a bunch more green tomatoes coming yet, but we aren’t sure if our weather will cooperate to let them finish growing and ripening.  Worst case, before it freezes we will pick whatever is left.

You can put green tomatoes in a sunny window and they will ripen over a period of several days. At the end of the season though when they are completely green, many of them will never ripen.  I love to make this Green Tomato Bacon Jam.  We also regularly make this Green Tomato Salsa Verde.

I guess we will see what happens. If we do end up with more ripe tomatoes in any quantity, we will likely make some spaghetti sauce and maybe some more salsa.

Here’s a video I did over on my YouTube account about tomatoes, too!