Canning Tomatoes (Water Bath Method)
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This video is an easy-to-follow guide to home canning tomatoes using the water bath method. I’ve also included step-by-step instructions for canning tomatoes below, so you’ll be a canning pro in no time!
This past weekend I made a video of the entire process of canning tomatoes in response to receiving so many questions about how to do it. The video below is under 30 minutes and goes over water bath canning as well as canning best practices for the safety of canned goods.
There are also some very important links at the bottom of the video and this post, which you may find helpful. To see a photograph tutorial on water bath canning, please click here. I’ve also included step-by-step written instructions to make life even easier because I’m nice like that 😉.
Once you get the handle on home canning tomatoes using the water bath method, you’ll become addicted to canning, a simple method from way back. I know I have! I’ve included some other canning recipes below, but it’s such an easy way to preserve fresh foods to enjoy later. You can also use any type of fresh tomatoes, like Roma, plum, or grape tomatoes.
Now, once you preserve them, I’m sure you’ll be wondering how to use them in your cooking. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered there as well, but are perfect as a substitution for or in pasta sauces, soups, stews, and chilis.
Keep scrolling and happy canning!
Note: It is up to the viewer/reader to use best canning practices and common sense when canning. I am not responsible for overseeing the canning methods and the safety of others.
This is also my real kitchen when it is not magazine ready. A lot of work and living takes place in this room and it shows!
Recipe Ingredients
- Fresh ripe tomatoes
- Bottled lemon juice or citric acid
Step-by-Step Guide to Canning Tomatoes in a Water Bath
Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Add tomatoes (in batches if you need to) and allow to boil until skins split.
Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a dish. Allow them to cool slightly. Repeat until all tomatoes have been done this way.
Fill the water bath canner pot with water and bring it to a low boil.
If using a regular pot, place a dish towel on the bottom.
Add jars and lids (not rings) and allow to simmer until ready to use.
Gently pull the skins off of the hot tomatoes and cut off the tops, if desired.
Drain the pot you boiled the tomatoes in and add skinned tomatoes back to this pot.
Chop up with a chopper or potato masher while bringing to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and stir often, boiling gently for 5 minutes.
Carefully remove jars from the boiling water canner and drain them into the canner. Place the jars on a dish towel-lined countertop.
Use your canning funnel to fill jars, being careful to leave 1/2-inch of space at the top.
Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid to each filled canning jar.
Use a damp paper towel to wipe around the rim and sides of each jar where the lid and ring will go.
Place the lid and ring on each jar and tighten lightly, but not overly tight.
Use canning tongs to lower each jar into the water bath. Make sure there is enough water to cover the jars by an inch.
Cover with a lid and bring to a rolling boil. Once it is at a rolling boil the processing time begins: 35 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts.
Remove from the canner once processed and place on a dish towel-lined counter.
Allow them to cool completely before removing the rings.
Storage
When stored in a cool, clean, and dry place, homemade canned tomatoes can easily last up to 12 months.
Recipe Notes
- If you’re wondering how many tomatoes you need, an easy guide to aim for is 3 lbs of tomatoes per quart jar and 1.5 lbs of tomatoes per pint jar.
- Here are some helpful links:
- My electric canner (this isn’t necessary, just a nice luxury)
- My pressure canner (for pressure canning beans, meats, etc)
- A less expensive but still very nice pressure canner. Note: pressure canners can also serve as pressure cookers, HOWEVER pressure cookers cannot serve as pressure canners.
- I suggest Walmart or Target for canning jars.
- A nice canning set (funnel, canning tongs, etc)
- Ball Blue Book for Preserving Recipes and Instructions
- Excellent website resources for safe canning recipes: FreshPreserving.com and National Center for Home Food Preservation.
You may also like these posts:
Simply Brilliant Canning Labels
Canning: THE MUSICAL (Canning Tutorial)
How to Put Up Tomatoes (Freeze Tomatoes the Easy Way)
And more things to can:
Chow Chow Recipe (Southern Relish)
Recipes that use canned tomatoes:
Tomatoes and Okra Recipe with Bacon
Slow Cooker Tacos With Ground Beef
Ingredients
- fresh tomatoes
- bottled lemon juice or powdered citric acid
Instructions
- Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Add tomatoes (in batches if you need to) and allow to boil until skins split. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a dish. Allow them to cool slightly. Repeat until all tomatoes have been done this way.fresh tomatoes
- Fill the canning pot with water and bring it to a low boil. If using a regular pot, place a dish towel on the bottom. Add jars and lids (not rings) and allow to simmer until ready to use.
- Gently pull skins off of the boiled tomatoes and cut off tops, if desired. Drain the pot you boiled the tomatoes in and add skinned tomatoes back to this pot. Chop up with a chopper or potato masher while bringing to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and stir often, boiling gently for 5 minutes.
- Carefully remove jars from the boiling water in the canner and drain them into the canner. Place the jars on a dish towel-lined countertop. Use your canning funnel to fill jars, being careful to leave 1/2-inch of space at the top.
- Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid to each filled jar. Use a damp paper towel to wipe around the rim and sides of each jar where the lid and ring will go.bottled lemon juice or powdered citric acid
- Place the lid and ring on each jar and tighten lightly, but not overly tight.
- Use canning tongs to lower each jar into the water bath. Make sure there is enough water to cover the jars by an inch. Cover with a lid and bring to a rolling boil. Once it is at a rolling boil the processing time begins: 35 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts.
- Remove from the canner once processed and place on a dish towel-lined counter. Allow them to cool completely before removing the rings.
Nutrition
Preserve today and enjoy tomorrow!
I just finished watching your tutorial on canning tomatoes! GREAT JOB! I’m glad that after all these years I’m doing the right thing. The only thing I noticed was that you wait to ring/lid the jars after they are all filled. Great idea. I’ve always just fixed up each jar as I go, but then like you demonstrated, you then can even them out. I liked that! Will remember to do the next time I can something…which will possibly be my tomatoes too. Ours in the midwest are taking FOREVER to ripen. Too much rain around here – the vines are loaded but still green! Thanks again for sharing another view of a normal kitchen – if you cook and live in your home it should look the same! (I now know why years ago, there were butler kitchens – they could hide the mess! LOL)
Thanks for all the information, Do you have a recipe for spaghetti sauce using home canned tomatoes I normally cook a big pot using tomato puree ,crushed, sauce, and paste? I have canned more this year than ever and still canning My apple tree is full in South Carolina Just got finished canning apple butter and apple sauce. (Moving on to tomatoes)
Marsha, I have a recipe for homemade canned tomato sauce which is my original and also my own recipe for salsa. This year the tomato crop where we live in South Carolina has not been that good so I’ve skipped those items until next year–hopefully. This year I have made Hot Dog Relish from an old family recipe, my Granny’s Chow Chow, Lime Pickles, peach jam, and watermelon rind preserves to be used in an heirloom fruitcake that my family has been making for generations. I would be happy to share any of these recipes. I, too, can applesauce every year; it is one of our favorites but I’ve never made apple butter.
Christy, In my over 55 years of gardening, canning and feeding my family I canned hundreds and hundreds of jars of tomatoes, juice, catsup, sauces, and have dehydrated many racks of tomato slices and even puree —– and since I no longer do that, being alone now and needing a pint of tomatoes only occasionally, I didn’t need a lesson. BUT I just enjoyed watching this video this morning for the memories. Thanks.
Thank you so much for watching Marylyn!!! That just made my day that you watched even when you didn’t need too!!
Christy, thanks for the video! Loved you were brave enough to show your well loved & beautiful kitchen. Maybe a tutorial on canning dried beans, after all the garden vegetables are gone of course.
Thank you Shirley!! Great idea!!
Hi Christy! I really enjoyed the video; it was very informative and I think your kitchen is adorable – canning jars, beans, (dogs!), canisters and all! I love the Le Creuset baking dish you used – very pretty! Thank you for taking the time to put together the tutorial. I haven’t canned tomatoes myself, but I remember traveling to southwestern Pennsylvania as a child, to visit my grandfather’s sister, Shirley. While we were visiting her, she and my mom would can jar after jar of tomatoes. I vividly remember how blazing hot my aunt’s kitchen would get in those August weeks, with the huge pots of boiling water on the stove burners. We kids couldn’t wait to escape outside, that house was so darn hot, but oh how nice it was to have homemade spaghetti sauce made with those tomatoes in the cooler months! Now that I have seen your tutorial, I would like to try my hand at canning tomatoes, especially since you done went and explained it so nice! Is there any chance you will be doing a tutorial on canning peaches in syrup or juice? I’m sure there are plenty of links on the internet and plenty of books, but it was very helpful watching you go through the steps with the tomatoes, and actually watching the process, instead of reading a book about it. Thank you again for taking the time to demystify the canning process!
Thank you so much Sharon!! I am so glad you found it helpful!! I will add canning peaches to my list, great idea!!
Thank you for this video, Christy! That’s the way my mom did it too. Yours look delishious!
Thank you Brenda!!
Christy: I enjoyed your canning video even though I can only eat a limited amount of tomatoes. Not to be braggy, your kitchen is neater than mine, but it’s also a lot larger, I think. 8)
I am glad you enjoyed it Kathy!!
Since the venison exploded on her and they had to clean venison off of EVERYTHING imaginable, my mother never canned again and never taught me. When I was little, she did do a yearly batch of pomegranate jelly, but that’s it. I can remember the paraffin on top of each jar. I think she got the pomegranate juice from the nearby dairy-she didn’t juice pomegranates herself, I don’t think, but my memories of the whole thing are fairly vague. Everything else-the parro-wax, the jelly jars, the lids, the rings, would have been available at Safeway. That just leaves the juice.
I had no idea why she did it, as we didn’t have trees. I couldn’t remember if I liked the jelly or not and was really curious. I have tried a recipe from Pom Wonderful, and I do like it, and have since found out that several family members had pomegranate trees and probably made jelly and that’s what started it.
I do do freezer jam, and ketchup, but not umpteen bottles. Just 1 and that’s enough for a single person. She also considered pressure-cookers to be dangerous, although her one sister used one regularly. I’ve never used one, but have considered a modern one several times.
Oh my goodness, I can just picture what a mess that was!!!