Best Ways to Preserve Tomatoes

, written by Barbara Pleasant us flag

Canning tomatoes

After you have celebrated your first ripe tomatoes with drippy sandwiches and bowls of gazpacho, it’s time to get busy preserving the harvest. Don’t jump to the conclusion that you must can all of your darlings in jars, because that may not be the best use for your tomatoes. Depending on type, you could be better off preserving certain tomatoes by drying, freezing, or pickling.

“Freezing
Freezing is the easiest to way to preserve cherry tomatoes

Preserving Cherry Tomatoes

Prolific cherry tomatoes are often your first preservation challenge. As tomatoes go, cherries are seedy little berries with thin flesh, so they produce unacceptably thin, often bitter juices or sauces. Whole cherry tomatoes make great refrigerator pickles when left to marinate in a vinegar and sugar brine, and larger ones can be cut in half and dehydrated into tomato “raisins.” Because they still have some moisture left in them, cherry tomatoes that are dried to the chewy stage should be stored in the freezer.

The best and easiest way to preserve cherry tomatoes is to freeze them by adding handfuls to re-closable freezer bags. Wash and pat dry the fruits before freezing so they can be added to cooked dishes straight from the bag. Freezing and thawing softens cherry tomatoes, which is not a bad thing when they are popped into pasta dishes at the last minute.

“Drying
Drying preserves the colors and flavors of juicy heirloom varieties

Preserving Slicing Tomatoes

Many of best-tasting tomatoes are bursting with juice, both from the flesh and from the gel that surrounds the seeds. This is what you want in a fresh eating tomato, but all that liquid can become a liability when you can them. While I do include heirlooms grown for their colors and flavors in some of my canning projects, my favorite way to preserve them is by drying them. Dehydration concentrates the flavors, and because tomatoes are dried raw, with their skins intact, dried tomatoes are a minimally processed food. Every year I find myself drying more tomatoes because they are so versatile in the kitchen. Any dish that cooks for more than 30 minutes, which includes all winter soups and stews, can be enriched with dried tomatoes. Some people use a spice grinder to pulverize dried tomatoes into powders used to boost the flavor and nutrition of sauces and broths.

Preserving Salad Tomatoes

Every year I grow ‘Roma’ or a small-fruited saladette variety like ‘Juliet’ to make into half-dried tomatoes, which I then freeze for long-term storage. I try to accumulate a good store of these delights, because they are the best off-season substitute for fresh tomatoes in salads and sandwiches. Frozen half-dried tomatoes thaw into flavorful, chewy tomatoes because of their reduced water content.

“Half-dried
Partially dehydrated and frozen half-dried tomatoes can be used like fresh ones

Ideally, you would start by using a dehydrator to remove about half of the moisture from cut tomato halves, but it can be done in an oven that is warmed no higher than 150°F (65°C), and ventilated, over a period of many hours. After four to five hours in a dehydrator or 12 to 18 hours in a monitored warm oven, the tomatoes collapse. I then freeze the half-dried tomatoes on cookie sheets and store the frozen tomatoes in plastic bags.

Canning Garden Tomatoes

The best tomatoes for canning have thick flesh and very little juice, so they naturally stay chunky in salsa or hold together as canned diced tomatoes. I grow several plants of a dry-fleshed tomato variety like ‘Plum Regal’ just for canning, but you can certainly use a mix of tomatoes to make tomato sauce, marinara sauce, or salsa. If most of the batch is juicy heirlooms, place some of the cut tomatoes in a strainer for a few minutes to remove some of the clear juice.

Tomato canning is an art that takes practice, and in the interests of safety it is always wise to acidify canned tomato products with vinegar, lemon juice or citric acid. You can use a water bath or steam canner for tomato products, but a pressure canner is faster and easier.

“Green
The tanginess of green tomatoes is best preserved in chutney

Preserving Green Tomatoes

Storm damage, rampaging animals or the arrival of cold weather can leave you with a quantity of green tomatoes which are perfect for making the thick, sweet and sour relishes we call chutneys. Small batches of green tomato chutney done up in little jars make wonderful gifts, if you can bring yourself to part with them.

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Comments

 
"Do you have any reccomendations for tomato sauce? What type of tomato is best for making sauces? My wife makes the sauce and then freezes it. Ove the years we have good sauces, very flavorful and some years not so much. I think it is the type of tomato plant I pick in the spring. I mostly don't think of making sauces when making my selectio but rather think of slices and chunks in frest salads. Then, the glut comes and its time for storage. "
Mark Hausammann on Saturday 8 August 2020
"Hi Mark, The type of tomatoes you use for sauce does make a difference. I try to use dense processing tomatoes, but always end up with a mix anyway. Next spring you might try the Roma variety because it is so versatile and always makes a nice sauce. "
Barbara Pleasant on Wednesday 12 August 2020
"its a very nice and informative piece, good work!"
russel on Wednesday 9 March 2022
"Hello i was wondering do you know how i could bottle Pomodoro Tomato please can i put them into a jar with olive oil or do they have to be aired or dried first thanks Pania"
Pania on Saturday 12 March 2022

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