When I first started making tomato sauce I wondered frequently if it was really worth all of that hard work. A can of tomato sauce back then anyway was 50 cents and it seemed like a lot of effort to go to just to make a can of sauce I could buy for so little. I have learned a lot since then, not only about the benefits of making my own food but also that making tomato sauce does not have to be so hard.
Back then I would quarter my tomatoes, cook them down a bit and run them through a hand crank food mill. Don’t get me wrong I am all for hand tools and I don’t mind a bit of hard work, but making tomato sauce should not be a two day affair, and I just have better things to do with my time. I tried to recruit people to help with all of that cranking but after a while they wised up and made themselves scarce when it was time to make tomato sauce.
The Easy Way
Ok so I cheat, but it allows me to do more sauces in a much shorter period of time and gives me time for other important tasks I need to do. Now my tomato sauce involves an extra step but it is worth it for how much time and effort it saves me.
I also use the food mill attachment for my kitchenaid, If you have a kitchenaid mixer I strongly recommend this attachment especially if you will be making a lot of sauces from your tomatoes. It saves a tremendous amount of time and effort and does a really nice job of extracting the sauce. If you do not have a kitchenaid mixer a hand food mill will still work fine, but it will just take you a bit longer. When I use the kitchenaid and process my tomatoes with the following method I can have my sauce ready to go back on in about 15 or 20 minutes.
Tomato Sauce
1) Wash, core and quarter tomatoes putting them in a stock pot. (I usually fill the pot close to the top for me this makes 5 quarts of tomato sauce) Approximately 25 pounds of tomatoes.
2) Cook tomatoes on medium, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, until the tomatoes are soft.
3) Ladle tomatoes into a blender a bit at a time and blend until there are no big pieces of tomatoes left.
4) Pour the blended tomatoes through the food mill, you will find that they go through the mill much faster, even if you are using a hand crank food mill.
5) Once you have processed all of your tomatoes, return the sauce to your stockpot. Cook at a simmer for 4 to 6 hours or until the sauce has reduced by about half and is at the desired thickness. Be sure to stir frequently as tomato sauce will scorch easily. Turn burner down if the sauce begins to burn or is boiling too much. It is better to cook it a bit slower and take more time than to burn the sauce making it useless for canning.
When you are ready to can your tomato sauce you have a couple of choices, you can use either a water bath canning method or you can pressure can the sauce, I have done both.
Water Bath Canning
1) Prepare your jars, lids and ring by washing them all in hot soapy water, fill your jars with hot water until you are ready to fill them and place your lids in a pan of boiling water. (you can use pints or quarts for this recipe)
2) Fill your canning kettle with water and bring it to a full boil. I also put a tea kettle on to boil at the same time, in case I do not have enough water to go over the top of the jars, you want to make sure that the water is about 1 to 2 inches over the top of your jars. For Tomato sauce you will also want to keep your tea kettle filled with boiling water in case the water boils down to far, it will allow you to recover the jars without interrupting the boiling.
3) Place 2 tablespoons of lemon Juice in each quart jar, or 1 tablespoon for pints, then fill the jars with your tomato sauce, leaving 1/2 inch head space in each jar.
4) Wipe the rims of the jars, and put hot lids and rings on the jars and tighten just slightly without over tightening the rings.
5) Place jars in the boiling water bath for 40 minutes for quarts and 35 minutes for pints, remove from hot water and check lids after they have cooled to ensure a good seal. If your jars do not seal then refrigerate contents.
Pressure Canning Method
Pressure canning offers a higher quality and more nutritious canned tomato product and it also takes less time than using a water bath canner, so I normally use this method.
Everything is done exactly the same in the pressure canning method except that you will process the tomato sauce in a pressure canner. Process Pints or quarts for 15 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure or 15 pounds of pressure for high altitudes.
I have a Presto Strainer that I use . It works great. I don’t have to cook them first, just run them through the strainer. I have also heard it is easier if you cut the tomatoes and squeeze some of the liquid out first, less cooking time.
I put my tomatoes in the blender with skin on and then cook them down. I fill my jars, throw in springs of fresh clean basil, put the lids and rings on. (I prep the jars by running them threw the dishwasher. I put the lids in boiling water, using them directly from the pan.) I then turn the jars upside down. This seals them. The next day I turn them upright. I check the lids and they are always sealed tight.
I make tomato sauce and ketchup even easier than that. I have a Blendtec blender, so I put my tomatoes in whole and raw, press the whole juice button, it blends them so finely that you don’t see even the smallest bit of a seed or piece of skin. Then I cook the sauce down to thicken and water bath it. So much quicker and easier. If you have a Blendtec, it’s an awesome time saver.
I’ve always peeled my tomatoes first, which is time consuming. You mean I don’t have to peel them?!
I have the same Vitamix as in your picture. I just wash the tomatoes, cut them in half, and puree them in there with some basil. Then cook down in the pot. Why do you cook them and then blend them?
I guess it is just a matter of how everyone chooses to do it Lori. Although I will say that for those without a high power blender, cooking them first does make them very easy to run through the blender.
after blending, and cooking down cant you just ladle into freezer quarts and skip the canning altogether. you can lay them flat, freeze, then stack accordingly. That’s what my mother does and she has been putting by food as long as I can remember. We always had fresh foods year round.
Forgive my ignorance, but what does the food mill do? I would have thought that the blender would have sufficiently liquified the tomatoes, does the food mill do something else?
You never want the skin or seeds in your sauce. This will cause the sauce to become bitter. Extracting the skin and seeds will give you the best results.
When I make my spaghetti sauce, I put it in the crock pot with pork neck bones, and cook it all night long. Then, in the morning I remove the bones, stir in my seasonings and any onions or bell peppers, then I set it on low or warm, with the lid off or ajar, and cook it all day. If the lid is on the sauce won’t thicken. I wonder if you could do the same with the tomatoes. That way you wouldn’t worry about them burning. You also eliminate having to stir it frequently. If I go home for lunch I’ll stir it or I just give my sauce a good stir when I get home from work.
This will be my first year growing my own vegetables and I’ve been trying to do so much research before hand. I have been all over Pinterest looking for a way to make sauce like my mother does out of fresh tomatoes rather then the canned sauce. This is exactly what I was looking for! I was told about the Kitchen Aid attachment but starting out I’m trying to find cost efficient ways until I know more about what I’m doing. Between the blog post and reader comments I’m feeling pretty confident going into this process. Thank you for sharing, I can’t wait to see what else you have on your blog!!!
I have seen recipes for canning quarts and pints but not 1/2 pints, I live in a high altitude area and I don’t know if I should hot water bath can or pressure can. And no says how long to can them for. Can you tell me how long to can them? Thanks.
Your tomatoes look great! I live in zone 10 so we are just genittg ready to put our seedlings in the ground, I can’t wait for those delicious homegrown tomatoes! Until then I guess I’ll just have to drool over yours