It is nice to have options for how to preserve our garden yield. This canning tomato juice recipe is lovely because it not only makes tomato juice but has a byproduct of tomato sauce as well. Some of my favorite uses for Tomato Juice are to use it instead of water to boil my tortellini or pasta. Marie loves to add tomato juice to her Spanish Rice. I love to use Tomato Juice as a soup base and to make tomato herb salad dressing. Use it in the place of water anytime you want to add a rich tomato flavor.
Tomato Juice
This recipe makes 1 quart of tomato juice.
Ingredients:
5.5 pounds quartered tomatoes
2 tbsp lemon juice per quart
simmer to soft
Begin making the juice by simmering the tomatoes until they are soft. Usually about 20 minutes.
place through a food mill and strain out the pulp
After the tomatoes are soft, feed them through a food mill. This will separate the more solid portions like the seeds and skins. I like to run the waste through a second time to get as much moisture out of it as I can. Alternately, you could put the mixture through a blender to make it smooth and chop up the skins and seeds. We then use my husband’s honey strainer (Which I absolutely love!) to separate the pulp from the juice. You could use cheesecloth or a different kind of strainer but the honey strainer with its double wire mesh is my favorite.
The skin and seeds I send out to the chickens but you could actually use it as Emmaline does. It can be dehydrated and then ground into a powder to add nutrients to many different dishes. The pulp I set aside to make into spaghetti sauce later.
Now that you have a lovely juice, all you have to do is bring the juice up to 190 degrees for 5 minutes. Do not let it start to boil or you will lose too much liquid through the steam.
add lemon juice
After 5 minutes, it is time to place it in jars and can it. I like to put a little tomato juice in the bottom of the jar before adding the lemon juice to give the jar a buffer from the cooler temperature of the lemon juice. I then fill it up leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
Place the lid on top of the jar and add the ring. Tighten the ring to fingertip tight and process in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes if at sea level. (Remember to adjust your processing time if higher than 1000 feet elevation.)
processing complete
Once your juice has completed the appropriate time in the boiling water bath canner take it out and set it on the counter, spacing them about an inch apart, for 24 hours to cool and completely seal.
Tomato Juice
If your jar of juice did not seal then place it in the fridge and use it immediately. Store the sealed jars in your lovely pantry to enjoy for the next 1-3 years. After three years the nutritional value of canned food diminishes. The quality is best in the first year.
If you have any questions about canning with the boiling water canner or how to adjust the pressure or processing time for altitude, take a look at our canning basics videos.
