Comments on: Canning Tomato Juice and Tomato Sauce

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:03:02 +0000

I found this page while looking up tomato juice for canning. My grandma (passed away last December) used to can tomato juice every summer and then we’d make soup from it by adding milk and simmering. It was wonderful with just adding a bit of salt and pepper to it. I’ve got tomatoes going in the garden and can’t wait to make it myself this year!

Of course, it’s a miracle we survived if you go by today’s standards… I never paid much attention while she was doing it, but my uncle told me she just hot packed the jars and slapped the lid/seal on and put in the pantry when cool :)

By: Kia

Kia — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 23:04:40 +0000

Janet, I’m doing that right now. I used my food mill and now have the sauce simmering on the stove to thicken. My friend makes hers this way and has for years and her sauce is wonderful.

To answer an earlier question, my friend says she’s never used lemon juicke or any other citric acid in her tomato sauce and has done just fine. She has four little ones who have been eating it since day one and no one has ever gotten sick. =)

By: Ingrid

Ingrid — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:55:08 +0000

Southern New England has not had a frost, so I am busy canning 5 gallons of tomato sauce. I never peel or de-seed, I just cook the snot of it. I don’t use lemon juice either, but do add olives & capers along with peppers, onions, garlic, herbs and celery. I was going to use my food mill, but then ended up with so much sauce, I got lazy and just cooked it a whole extra day. yum.

By: Janet

Janet — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:47:02 +0000

Am thinking I will use my Foley Food Mill to make the sauce … anyone else done this? I love it for apple sauce and thought it might be one way to avoid the peeling (although now I read that many of you don’t peel .. that’ll be next year) and to get good tomato sauce!

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:06:47 +0000

You’ll need to heat it again before canning, then it will be perfect!

By: Leigh Sabey

Leigh Sabey — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:28:25 +0000

Thanks for your tutorial — I’m planning to make a batch tomorrow!

By: Leigh Sabey

Leigh Sabey — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:26:22 +0000

Hi Starla, just so you know…(and I’m sure your tomato sauce is fine)…I madde the same mistake last year. I decided to call my local CSU extension office (experts in home canning safely), and they advised me to throw away all of my beautifully canned tomato sauce because I forgot the lemon juice :(. They said that although tomatoes are usually acidic enough to be safe, they vary quite a bit, and you can’t really be sure. It was VERY painful to throw it out, but I decided to take their advice because I planned to feed the sauce to my young kiddos and didn’t want to risk it. I’m sure yours will be OK but just wanted to share my experience!

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:35:33 +0000

What if the tomato sauce is cold (made yesterday and want to can today) will that work??

By: Phyllis

Phyllis — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 05:55:11 +0000

This is exactly how we do our sauce, except we puree them in a cuisinart. Why buy fiber when you can eat tomato skins? Plus we cook them much longer – sometimes as much as 2-3 days, very slowly, turning it off at night(and covering the pot). Endpoint is the same – thick and not watery. To prevent scorching, we put a steel plate from our woodstove cooktop on top of the gas burner under the pot, to spread the heat. Also, we shorten the evaporation process by dipping out some of the watery liquid (if you push your ladle down in the tomato sauce, you will create a crater that fills with thin but tasty juice). We dip that out into pint jars and can it separately, for soup base. Canning times seem to vary wildly – 10 minutes for tomato juice to 45 for quarts of tomatoes. I figure the sauce is well cooked already and is put into jars still hot – we process for 10-15 minutes and have not had a problem.

By: Teresa

Teresa — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:40:21 +0000

I never add lemon juice either..have canned spaghetti sauce for the past 2 years with great results :) I cook it for 3 1/2 hours,put in jars and bath it for 15 minutes :)