Tomatoes Continued - Days 4 & 5

It has been a very busy week of processing tomatoes. At this point I have now processed 5 1/2 hampers of tomatoes. I'm tired and very achy so by the time you are reading this I'm already well into enjoying a much appreciated weekend away.
Tomato Harvest

Ladies and gentleman as promised here are pictures of the tomato harvest.  Tomato wagons are connected to tractors then a tomato harvester follows along side the wagons.  Pickers stand in the harvester to remove green tomatoes.  As the tomatoes are harvested they travel up conveyor belts to be deposited into the wagons.  When full the tomato wagons are hooked to transport trucks or tractors depending on the distance needed to travel to the processing plant. 

  

Testing pH

When home canning pH is very important.  In general if the pH is above 4.6 then the food is considered low acid so it must be processed using a boiling water bath canner.  If you only use tested USDA approved recipes (which all new canners should use) then all you have to do is simply follow those guidelines.  However, I wanted to can my own sauces using recipes it has taken me years to perfect so that means testing pH.  The simplest method is to use pH paper but if the sauce is strongly coloured it will throw off the reading.  Another problem with pH paper is there is a level of guestimation by simply trying to match the colour to the indicator.  For example I tested 5% acetic acid white vinegar with pH paper that read at pH 2.5 however using a pH meter the pH was 2.1.  In terms of pH this is a big difference.  So while pH paper is a useful indicator a pH meter is better for more accurate readings.  Tomatoes and tomato products for the most part can be processed using a boiling water bath or pressure canner but in both cases the current recommendation is to acidify by adding either citric acid or lemon juice.  Virtually everything I can that is tomato based is tested for pH mainly for my own records.
Spaghetti Meat Sauce

Pictured is 14 - 500 ml jars of my famous spaghetti meat sauce.  This is a slow cook sauce that takes a fair amount of preparation and about 4 hours cook time before being ready for canning or freezing.  I use one particular variety of plum tomatoes.   The tomatoes are peeled then quartered.  Other ingredients including fresh ground, lean ground beef, fresh herbs and fresh mushrooms combine to make a mouth watering hearty sauce.  This sauce originally was made from scratch for dinner with left-over sauce being froze.  About 6 years ago I decided to try canning some as a convenience product.  The results were wonderful!  While making this sauce fresh is still the primary way I make it having  several jars on hand is a real time saver!

Marinara Sauce

Pictured are 5 L of marinara sauce and you would have seen the other 6 - 500 ml jars but they were in the canner and I needed the photo since we were leaving for the weekend.  This sauce is an improtu since it was not on my original list of tomato products to can but that list really changes anyways as I do the canning.

Marinara sauce is named after the mariners who made this simple yet tasty sauce.  It consists of tomatoes, olive oil, onions, garlic and fresh basil.  That's it.  Yet this sauce is tasty by itself as a pasta topping or can be used for a blush sauce.  It is a bit thinner than some pasta sauces.  

The simplicity of this sauce is one of its beauties.  You must use all fresh ingredients with the basil being picked within minutes of going into the sauce.  For canning purposes, a greatly reduced amount of olive oil is used added for the flavour since pressure canning increases the antioxidant properties of lycopene much the same as olive oil does.  

Putting Up Tomatoes - Days Two & Three

A reader commented on the previous post that I had a lot of tomatoes and wanted to know if they were all for our family's use. The answer is yes, all of the tomato products I put up are for our family's use. A few jars find their way to friends but that is factored in to what is needed to get up to the next tomato season. So I'm putting up at least a year's worth plus a bit extra of tomato products. Less jars are actually processed some days during my busy tomato canning season. The reason for this is as the product increases in complexity it takes longer to get the product ready which affects the number of loads that can be processed in the day. I also start getting tired and quite achy by about day 3 which slows me down a bit.

Pasta Sauce

Pictured is the yield from one hamper of tomatoes, a meatless pasta sauce. A hamper looks like a lot of tomatoes but once purée the average yield will be 16 - 500 ml jars. My canner holds 14 - 500 ml jars so I put the rest in a refrigerator container. The sauce was pressure canned. sauce is made essentially the same way I make my meat sauce with two variations. The tomatoes are run through a food mill first. Then vegetables are puréed are added to the tomato purée. No meat is added. The seasonings are added then the sauce is then allowed to cook slowly on low heat. Seasonings are adjusted during the cooking period. From purée to final sauce ready for canning the cooking time is about 4½ hours. That means I'm waiting on the sauce to finish cooking. Why? I'm using extra large stock pots and the canner meaning I have to use the reinforced heavy pot burner on the cartridge. I only have one of these special burners so can only run one huge pot at a time.

Three More Hampers

My husband picked up three more hampers of tomatoes Tuesday afternoon. I almost forgot to take a picture so half a hamper is missing as the tomatoes were already in the sink being cleaned. These are are different variety from the first three hampers I processed. This is quite normal as I get the tomatoes as the fields are being harvested so it depends on where they are harvesting that day. I'll post a picture or two of the harvest shortly. I keep track of the varieties because some plum varieties are better for certain products than others. The first three hampers are my preferred tomatoes. This variety is smaller and firmer than the first variety. Over the course of my tomato canning season I will go through at least 4 plum varieties but of those I use the first variety the most.

On the Grill

Roasted tomato sauce means long, slow roasting on the grill. They are roasted from start to finish without a lid. As the tomatoes reduce more are added. It takes quite a bit of time but the results are worth it! It is one of our family favourites.

If you have been following this blog you will know that I always maximize grilling capacity and even when we are busy I like to make a nice meal for dinner. The grill was going for the sauce so it was perfect timing to wrap a pork shoulder roast in foil for slow cooking. Part of the foil packet is just barely visible to the left of the tomatoes. The roast was cooked from frozen taking about 3 hours. Later I added a foil packet of sliced potatoes and there was our dinner.

Dinner

Dinner consisted of pork shoulder roast, sliced potatoes and the last of the niblet corn from 2007 all cooked on the grill. I just finished putting up the 2008 corn crop so that was cutting fairly close. Pork done in foil on the grill is so moist and tender that you really don't even need a knife to cut it! The important thing is to be sure the foil packet is tightly sealed so as to keep all the juices inside preventing the pork from drying out. Wrap the foil packet inside at least two more foil packets tightly sealed. Be careful when opening as there will be a lot of steam escaping. Use a sauce of your choice, garlic pepper and chopped onion to add more flavour. The potatoes were simply sliced thin, placed on a sheet of tin foil then drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with sea salt and garlic pepper. The foil was formed into a packet and tightly sealed. Cook time for the potatoes was about 30 minutes.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

After dinner puréed the roasted tomato sauce then canned with a yield of 10 - 500 ml jars. I pressure canned the sauce even though it was pH 4.0 so it could have been processed using a boiling water bath canner. By processing using the pressure canner I was able to process all 10 jars in one load rather than two loads and processing time is less when using a pressure canner.

Roasted tomato sauce gets its unique flavour by slow roasting on the grill on low heat. The top tomatoes will caramelize a bit. These are stirred in when adding more tomatoes. The tomatoes, vegetable mixture (onions, celery, green pepper) and fresh herbs are added in stages as the original mixture boils down. The end result is a rich, full bodied, thick tomato sauce for pasta or other dishes.

Processing Tomatoes (Day 1) & Pizza Sauce Recipe

I had planned on getting an early start processing tomatoes yesterday and while I was up early, I didn't start tomatoes until mid-morning. It was a beautiful, warm autumn day with no breeze. I took one look at my nice white countertops and decided using the food mill outdoors would be a great idea. It was also a practical idea as the counters are now ⅞ inch higher after the renovation meaning I would have to be standing on my step stool to run the food mill, not quite a pleasant position when processing a lot of tomatoes.

Outdoor Setup

I set up the food mill on one of the picnic tables just off the covered patio the kitchen opens onto. I had a pleasant view of the water and the warmth of the sun's kisses while I worked so it was quite relaxing. What I notice was it was a lot easier to use the food mill when set to the lower level of the picnic table. The seat made a dandy leg rest for shifting weight while working. Another thing I noticed was there was very little mess.

Pictured is my outside set-up. Not pictured are the bar towels that I used to cover the food mill hopper and shoot as I transported tomatoes from the kitchen and the purée to the waiting stock pots. I washed the tomatoes in the kitchen. Field tomatoes tend to be dirty resulting in dirt pieces on both the countertop and floor. This was easily kept in check with my hand held vacuum cleaner as well as wiping the counter. I should mention that I'm a firm believer in clean as you go whether it be cooking or home preserving.

Tomato Purée

A food mill is essential for making smooth tomato sauces. I'm still using a manual food mill but plan on buying the food mill attachment for my KitchenAid® stand mixer. A food mill consists of a hopper (where you put the food), an auger covered with a screen (the work part of the food mill), a wide shoot where the purée exits and a funnel shaped shoot where the waste exits.

Pictured is the first bowl of tomato purée for 2008. Tomato purée has a deep, rich, orangy-red colour that is just a beauty to behold. It's enough to tantalize the taste buds and that's before turning it into mouth watering sauces. Two hampers were processed into tomato purée with the third hamper left until the following morning.

Day's End

A large portion of the tomatoes I process are made into various sauces and convenience products for the pantry. The reason for this is I enjoy convenience as much as anyone else. The only difference is I prefer homemade convenience. I also prefer to make sauces our family likes that you can't find in the stores and I like to put them into jar sizes that will be used entirely when I use them.

Kitchen Tip: Lately there has been a lot of talk about BPA (Bisphenol A) in plastics marked with 7 or PC in the recycle symbol. However BPA also is found in the coated liner of some tomato products. BPA leaches from the plastic when exposed to high heat, acid foods/drinks and harsh detergents. Any commercially canned food is exposed to high heat and some foods are high acid so the BPA in the coated liner can leach into your foods simply through the commercial canning process. As more and more is known about the effects of contaminates such as BPA and the health effects of food additives and preservatives, home canning and freezing becomes a viable solution. The glass mason jars are inert so you never have to worry about anything leaching into your food.

Yesterday's yield from 2 hampers of tomatoes was:

• 8 - 250 ml jars pizza sauce (1)
• 3 - 500 ml jars pizza sauce (1)
• 3 - L jars plain tomato sauce (2)
• 16 - 500 ml jars meatless pasta sauce (3)

I pressure canned (PC) the tomato products for two reasons. First, pressure canning increases the antioxidant properties of lycopene so it is a healthier product. Second, sauces processed in a boiling water bath (BWB) canner take 35 minutes for 250/500 ml jars and 40 minutes for L jars with burner on high heat. Processing using a pressure canner takes 7 minutes vent time (high heat) and 15 minutes (setting 7.5) for 250 to L sized jars. So not only am I saving time by pressure canning I'm also saving electricity (every kW counts) at 22 minutes per load verse 35 to 40 minutes per load. My cost for electricity goes from 6¢ - 8¢ per load down to 4¢ per load, clearly not a huge amount but consider as many as 4 or 5 loads per day over the period of just tomato season. At an estimated 10 days averaging 3 loads per day I'm saving 60¢ to $1.20 as well as reducing my carbon footprint. However, those savings are actually greater because I'm able to process 14 - 500 ml jars in the pressure canner verses 7 in the boiling water bath canner reducing the number of loads needed saving more time, money and electricity.

Pizza Sauce
modified from:  Bernardin, Tomatoes Canning & Speciality Recipes, (2000), Pp. 61
13 c tomato purée
½ c lemon juice
½ c tomato paste
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp garlic powder

Put half of the tomato purée into a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Maintain a constant boil and the remaining purée 1 c at a time. Stir in remaining ingredients. Boil hard stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Continue boiling to desired thickness. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars. Wipe rim. Adjust two piece caps. Process using one of the two following methods;

BWB Processing: 35 minutes for 500 ml (pints), 40 minutes for 1 L (quarts) for altitudes below 1,000 feet above sea level, for higher altitudes adjust using the altitude adjustment chart.

PC Processing: 15 minutes for 250 ml, 500 ml or L jars at 10 lb pressure for altitudes below 1,000 feet above sea level, for higher altitudes adjust using the altitude adjustment chart.

Tomatoes Starting & Easy Pasta Dinner

I have seriously been dragging my heels when it comes to putting up tomatoes this year likely because I am still tired from the kitchen renovations or maybe it is just being tired in general. At any rate, I'm a good two and a half weeks behind schedule! With September quickly coming to an end I really cannot procrastinate any further. So tomorrow morning bright an early I start processing the first of the tomatoes. Unlike other years where I was able to take a day or two break between processing batches, this year will be processing the same amount of tomatoes in a shorter period of time. My goal is to get as much processed by Friday as we are celebrating our family Thanksgiving this coming weekend.

Tomato Hampers

My husband picked up three hampers of beautiful looking plum tomatoes late this afternoon. If you recall one hamper is ⅝ bushel. By the time I am finished all the tomato products I will have gone through at least 10 hampers.

This afternoon I did a stock count of what tomato products were in the pantry and what I need to make. This is an important process for me because it forms a game plan that determines what products I make on a given day. Generally I like to keep those products that involve a lot of preparation like salsa and chili sauce to do at the same time. They take longer to prepare so less canner loads can be run in the day.

On this year's tomato products to can (click links for recipes):

• salsa - hot/medium/mild
• roasted tomato sauce
• tomato paste
• chili sauce
• pasta sauce (meatless)
• pasta sauce with meat
• whole tomatoes
• crushed tomatoes
• tomato soup (1), tomato soup (2)
• roasted tomato vegetable sauce
• tomato juice
• tomato cocktail*
• tomato fruit salsa*
• seafood sauce*
• creole sauce*
• pizza sauce
• picante sauce*
• chicken wing sauce*

* Recipes will be posted as I make these tomato products.

Jars

When I'm planning on doing a large amount of canning over a short period of time I do a jar assessment. I have a bit of preference for wanting a particular product all in one brand of jar not that it makes any difference other than mixing the old pint/quarts with the new 500 ml/L jars because the heights are different. At the moment, I am seriously low on 500 ml and 250 ml jars but I have enough L jars for the whole and crushed tomatoes. I also have enough 250 ml jars for a couple of the tomato products I want to process and enough 500 ml jars to at least start. So that means the first products out tomorrow are going to be whole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, meatless or roasted tomato sauce. My husband is away tomorrow so will pick-up more jars and three more hampers of tomatoes Tuesday.

Ingredients

Processing tomatoes more so than any other produce means pantry eating and easy prep meals. The main reason for this is I try to get as many canner runs in per day as possible. That means early morning starts and long days that run into the early morning hours.

Sunday night's dinner started with three simple ingredients from the pantry - tomato soup, seasoned ground beef and elbow macaroni. With the addition of a couple more ingredients I had a tasty, nutritious and low cost dinner on the table in 15 minutes! These are the kind of meals I depend on when I'm busy canning.

Easy Pasta Dinner

Starting with the three ingredients pictured I added chopped Spanish onions, milk, fresh grated Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley for a quick but tasty meal. Despite being quick and easy to prepare the meal was a success. As far as costs go the entire meal cost just under $3 or 75¢ per serving making this an ideal budget stretching meal.

On the topic of budget stretch meals. Too often people thing that these kind of meals have to be plain or tasteless or boring. There is no need for them to be anything but tasty, satisfying and filling. Stir in home grown herbs or a little fresh grated Parmesan cheese or fresh ground pepper. Add a dash of hot pepper sauce or Worcestershire sauce to give a dish sparkle without adding a lot to the overall cost. If anything when trying to save money on your food budget, creativity can be a huge plus!

Method: Fill a large saucepan with water about half full. Add sea salt and a little olive oil. Bring to a boil. Stir in elbow noodles. While the noodles are cooking chop onions and cut parsley. When noodles are al dente, drain then return to saucepan. Pour in the tomato soup, a half jar of milk, ground beef and onions. Heat through. Ladle into a bowl. Top with fresh shredded Parmesan cheese and a sprig of parsley.