Home canning is the best way to capture the freshness, flavor and nutrients of the local foods. This is a very good method of preserving and enjoying the vegetables and fruits grown at your very own garden. If you are lucky enough to have an abundant harvest of tomato, adopting the right preserving methods can assure that the overstock of produce will not go to waste. Here’s how to do it:
Examine canning jars for cracks or sharp edges that may cause breakage and prevent proper sealing. Discard any lids with cracks in the rubber seal, rust or bends. Wash jars in hot, soapy water. Rinse well. Tomato canning is a fun way of preserving its fresh and natural flavors all year round. To ensure freshness, you have to carefully choose each and every tomato you are going to use. Discard overripe or spoiled tomatoes. Wash tomatoes thoroughly under running water. Also, make sure to get all the sand or dirt off from each and every tomato produce. Clean them in the same manner you would if you were going to eat them fresh from your garden.
Use only microwavable utensils when preparing tomatoes for canning in microwave. Check the tomatoes several times during cooking to check the progress for up to four to five minutes. Microwave canning is done in such a manner that jars are filled with food and then heated to the point of boiling. However, the USDA has deemed this canning method unsafe since microwaves do not tend to heat foods evenly. For this reason, some bacteria could remain even after processing. Using the proper processing temperature and time is very crucial when canning tomatoes. This ensures that the processed food is safe to consume. Keep in mind that tomatoes are easily spoiled, and if not processed properly, the sooner the food will spoil. Also, when processing tomatoes in microwave, take into consideration the shape and size of the jar to calculate the processing time required.
After microwave canning, label the jars with the content and the date of when they were processed. You can store the jars in a cool, dry and dark place. Do not expose the jars to a lot of light or warm temperatures as it can alter the flavor and color of the processed tomato. Ideally, you may store the jars at temperatures between 50 and 70 degree Fahrenheit.
When storing you the processed tomato, check each and every jar for spoilage before using them. Canned foods are prone to clostridium botulinum bacterium that causes botulism. It is therefore advised to check your stored canned goods periodically for signs of spoilage such as leakage or streaks of food coming from the lid, raising bubbles, and bad coloring/discoloration of food. After opening the jar, look for any signs of mold that is present on the lid of the jar as well as on the tomato content itself. Contents with unnatural odor should be discarded. Finally, never taste the food to determine if it is actually spoiled. When it doubt, you’re better off discarding them.