Canning Tomato Juice at Home

Homemade Tomato Juice is Delicious

*When canning tomato juice, you are going to need a pressure canner. The best quality for the price is from All American pressure canners.

Canning tomato juice is a great way of preserving tomatoes from the large bushels our plants produce every summer. Processing tomato juice can be safely done in a water bath canner using lemon juice for added acidity and food safety.

If you want to make a V-8 type of juice by mixing tomatoes with other vegetables, you need a pressure canner that can handle low acid foods, which all vegetables are.

At my house, we used to go through at least one large can of tomato juice a week. That is 48 cans per year, and that is only for drinking. Many times I use that tomato juice to round out beef stew, chili or soups.

I dare say your garden can handle this if you just grow a few tomato plants and go about preserving tomatoes here and there this summer. If you can't grow your own for tomato preserves, just find a farmers market, or better yet, find a local pick your own farm for a large box or two of fresh organic tomatoes.

Canning Tomato Juice

Ingredients

Tomatoes

Lemon Juice

Equipment

16-20 Quart Teflon Pot to cook your tomatoes

1 Water Bath Canner or Pressure Canner

Ball Canning Jars, quart sized

Jar Funnel, makes filling jars easier and cleaner

Jar Grabber, to pluck the jars out of scalding water!

Lids, flat metal lids with a binder sealant. You only use these once.

Rings, these metal bands secure the lids on the jars. If you keep them from rust you can reuse them.

Lid Lifter, you sterilize the lids with boiling water in their own pan. The magnet picks them up for you. I have found this magnet is nice but optional.

Making Homemade Tomato Juice

How many tomatoes do you need?

We are going to make tomato juice using quart sized jars, as doing it by the pint just means more work, plus you will have to spend extra money for more pint jars. Good for jam, not for juice.

A little farmer math:

A bushel of preserving tomatoes weighs in at 53 pounds and will yield about 17 quarts of tomato juice. A quart of juice is worth about 3 1/4 pounds of juice for your dining pleasure.

So if your family drinks one quart per week, conservatively, you will want to pick 3 bushels, or 159 lbs. and make a big day of canning tomato juice! That is a lot for most families, so don't worry, just plan on canning stewed tomatoes and canning tomato sauce with the extras.

Sterilize your jars using either boiling water using your water bath canner, or the dishwasher on the sterilize setting. Lids are placed in a shallow pan of hot water, but do not boil them with the jars as the sealant cannot withstand that much heat.

Cut up into quarters 2 pounds of the tomatoes at a time and put in the teflon pot. Heat to boiling and continue to add tomatoes. Crush and boil as you keep adding more tomatoes. A potato masher works well here

Continue to cook the mixture 5-10 minutes being careful to reduce it down without burning it.

Strain through a sieve (hardest) or use a handy foley food mill. You can also use your juicer provided it can handle boiling liquids.

Now that the juice is strained, heat it again, just to boiling.

This step is important to food safety. You must add lemon juice or citric acid to the jars to acidify the food to avoid dangerous spoilage.

To Acidify

We recommend lemon juice or citric acid over vinegar to avoid an unpleasant taste. Add 2 Tablespoons to each quart jar before filling them.

Fill jars with hot juice, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add lids and rings, and process as to the chart below:

Boiling Water Canner: Quart Jar Size:Hot Pack:

1000-3000ft.=40 minutes

3000-6000ft.=45 minutes

6000 and Above=50 minutes

Pressure Canner:Quart Jar Size:Hot Pack:

0-2000 ft.=6lbs.PSI for 11 minutes

2000-4000 ft.=7 lbs.psi for 12 minutes

4000-6000 ft.=8lbs.psi for 13 minutes

6000-8000 ft.=9 lbs.psi for 14 minutes

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Canning Tomato Juice to Frugal Living

Canning Tomato Juice to Canning Food

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