Canning Tomato Juice

5 from 1 vote

Making tomato juice is one of the easiest ways to preserve your harvest of tomatoes in the summer. Use it for soups, stews, or canning whole tomatoes.

Course Beverage, canning

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 5

Processing Time 40

Total Time 1 15

Servings quart

Calories 245kcal

Author Beth Neels

Cost $10

Equipment

Ingredients

3 lbs tomatoes
salt
Bottled Lemon Juice or citric acid

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

How to make with juicer

If canning, start water bath canning pot. The pot can take up to 45 minutes to boil.
Rinse tomatoes well. Remove stems and cores. Cut out any bad spots. Chop in small enough pieces to fit into the hopper of your juicer. No need to peel or remove the stem end.
Feed the pieces into the hopper of your juicer. With bowls to collect the juice and the skins and seeds.
Once they are juiced, place the juice in a large pot.
Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium high. Simmer about 5 minutes to heat through.

How to make with food mill or sieve

Wash tomatoes well. Trim any bad spots off. Remove the stem end. Cut tomatoes in pieces.
Add tomato quarters to large pot, in batches. Bring to boil over medium high heat. Once heated, add remaining tomatoes. Crush tomatoes with potato masher, in between additions.
Once mashed, cook them for 5 minutes, until softened.
Run the tomatoes through your food mill or sieve to remove the skins and seeds.
Add the juice back to the pot. Bring back to boil. Boil for a minute or two, stirring constantly..

Canning the juice

Prepare jars and lids. There is no need to sterilize the jars.
Add salt to hot jars. Add lemon juice or citruc acid. See important notes below for quantities.
Using a clean ladle, fill jars with hot tomato juice, leaving 1/2 inch headspace ( the space between the top of product and the top of jar.
Remove any air bubbles with wooden or plastic chopstick or knife.
Wipe jar rim with clean, damp towel.
Apply lids.
Attach bands, fingertip tighten.
Place jars in canning pot. Once water boils, start timing the processing time.
Process quart jars 40 minutes, process pints for 35 minutes, at sea level. adjust for altitude.

Video

Notes

Quantity of tomatoes needed. A bushel of tomatoes will yield 15-18 quarts of juice. So you need about 3¼ pounds (or just over 1 quart of tomatoes) per quart jar.

If you don't have a juicer or food mill, you can peel tomatoes by hand and then remove the seeds. To make peeling easier, use a quick blanch to loosen skins. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Remove the core end. Dip tomatoes in boiling water. Then cool them in an ice cold water bath. After they cool, simply slip the skins off. Slice peeled tomatoes in half and then scoop out seeds. Proceed with the juicing as described above.

Lemon juice or citric acid is required to achieve a safe acidity level for water bath canning.

It's best to use fresh, ripe tomatoes. Either home grown or farmers' market/ stand will work beautifully.
No matter which process you use, make sure to cook the tomatoes or the juice for 5 minutes to reduce the possibility of contamination to reduce the possibility of contamination from bacteria like Clostridium botulinum. The bacteria that causes botulism..
3 pounds of tomatoes will make about one quart of juice, depending on the variety.
Always use the recommended amount of bottled lemon juice per jar.
Salt is optional but enhances the flavor greatly.
Keep juice hot until it goes into the jars.
Only add hot juice to hot jars to minimize the risk of the jar cracking.

IMPORTANT!

When home canning it is important to follow recommendations regarding acidity levels to keep your family safe from potential disease.

Boiling water bath canner or pressure canners can be used to can this juice. Even if pressure canning juice still requires added acidity.

Therefore added acidity is very important in tomato recipes. Add 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice per quart. Add 1 tablespoon per pint.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per quart. Add 1/4 teaspoon per pint.

Salt is optional but recommended. Add 1 teaspoon of salt for quart jars. 1/2 teaspoon for pint jars.

Place labels on jars including the date. Store in a dark place, like a basement for about a year.

This tomato juice can also be canned in pressure canners. For more information see the USDA recommendations here.

Nutrition