Tomato Juice

[coronabarb]

What Worth said ;-) Salt is for taste...won't affect the acidity. I just canned up 12 qts of crushed tomatoes. That leftover juice, even though watery is so delicious to drink. Can't beat that homegrown tomato taste. Oh and I don't add salt either. I prefer to use it when cooking or to sprinkle on when eating. I tend to eat too much salt already.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by coronabarb

What Worth said ;-) Salt is for taste...won't affect the acidity. I just canned up 12 qts of crushed tomatoes. That leftover juice, even though watery is so delicious to drink. Can't beat that homegrown tomato taste. Oh and I don't add salt either. I prefer to use it when cooking or to sprinkle on when eating. I tend to eat too much salt already.

I cut back on the salt in my 20's I cant believe how salty canned food is.
And for no reason.

A few misconceptions on salt and preserving.
Yes you can preserve with it but not in canning.
Unless you are fermenting pickles.
It is used to dehydrate and cure meat.
This removes so much moisture that the meat wont spoil.
Many times this also includes the addition of wine and some other acid in sausage and a nitrate.
A nitrate will break down into a nitrite at a slow rate.
Both Nitrites and nitrates are used to dry cure sausage and hams many of which aren't cooked and eaten raw like Prosciutto.
They just use salt on Prosciutto and age it for 2 years or so.

If done right you get a white mold on the outside if something goes wrong it will get slimy.


Worth

[wildcat62]

We ended up with 10 quarts of juice last night & plan on doing another batch this afternoon. We ran the tomatoes thru the Victorio (Man, that sure beats blanching), cooked the juice down as described in another post, added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice & 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each quart and then ran then in a canner for 30 minutes. Got a good seal on all of them. After they set on the counter all night there was some settling with about a 1" of clear juice on top of each jar. I'm guessing the longer we reduce the juice the less of that we would have. But overall I think it turned out good for our 1st time. We definitely have our system down now.
Thanks again for all the help....
Mark

[coronabarb]

I don't worry about the clear juice that settles out. It doesn't look as nice but it's all good when you open the jar.

[wildcat62]

You got that right. The juice is delicious. We have 19 quarts so far and have another large pot of juice simmering on the stove as I write this. Probably 9 more quarts in it. Sure appreciate the help.

[isuhunter]

Hi everyone -- now that the garden is giving me ample tomatoes daily I'm saving up a bunch for some tomato juice. I know this probably isn't the prefered method but curious to hear what everyone has to say. Please critique my process. (this is my Grandmothers process) I know it should probably be waterbathed canned.

1. I forget if I skinned the tomatoes or just quartered them and placed in my handcrank food mill.
2. Collect juice
3. Heat juice to a simmer for 10 min
5. sanitize jars & lids
6. pack jars tightly on the counter
7. layer towels over the top
8. Check for seal the following morning

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by isuhunter

Hi everyone -- now that the garden is giving me ample tomatoes daily I'm saving up a bunch for some tomato juice. I know this probably isn't the prefered method but curious to hear what everyone has to say. Please critique my process. (this is my Grandmothers process) I know it should probably be waterbathed canned.

1. I forget if I skinned the tomatoes or just quartered them and placed in my handcrank food mill.
2. Collect juice
3. Heat juice to a simmer for 10 min
5. sanitize jars & lids
6. pack jars tightly on the counter
7. layer towels over the top
8. Check for seal the following morning

To be polite but truthful not good.
The one thing that really should be done is water bath even though people do it and have got away with it for years.

May I ask, why not water bath?
Worth

[coronabarb]

Yes please water bath and add lemon juice or citric acid. If the tomatoes are on the lower end of acidity, they might not be acid enough for safety. The method used above can result in a sealed jar. But you are sealing in anything that went into the jar, like spores. You will also have some air left in that will hasten spoilage or oxidation changes. Here is a link for current recommendations for tomato juice canning;

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_03/tomato_juice.html

[wildcat62]

These good people guided me thru the process & we have 30 quarts on the shelf now. Lots of good info on here.

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by coronabarb

Yes please water bath and add lemon juice or citric acid. If the tomatoes are on the lower end of acidity, they might not be acid enough for safety. The method used above can result in a sealed jar. But you are sealing in anything that went into the jar, like spores. You will also have some air left in that will hasten spoilage or oxidation changes. Here is a link for current recommendations for tomato juice canning;

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_03/tomato_juice.html

Too complicated and totally unnecessary IMO.

Cook, Strain, Pressure Can. Anything has to be an improvement over what is sold as tomato juice in supermarkets.

[coronabarb]

Yes Durgan, you are entitled to your opinion on your way.

[ContainerTed]

Originally Posted by coronabarb

Yes Durgan, you are entitled to your opinion on your way.

Durgan does a lot of "juicing". He seems to juice everything. The other day he was doing some Tortillas. I kept waiting for him to show us how he juices tortillas.

[isuhunter]

Thank you for your replies.

I'll look at waterbathing them.

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/2015/August%20...%20Juice/HTML/ 19 August 2015 Tomato Juice
Forty pounds of tomatoes picked today and cooked in their own juice was made into 14 liters of juice. Each liter is about 2.8 pounds of tomatoes.The tomatoes were quartered, cooked about 20 minutes, blended into a slurry, put through a Victoria electric strainer. The residue output of the Victorio was put through a Champion Juicer to extract maximum nutrients.The juice was put into liter jars and pressure canned at 15 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature.A couple of ripe peppers was added since they were available.

[Salsacharley]

You could have made a bunch of salsa with that!