On my list for today was to get the Tomato Jam made, along with canning the turkey, getting the basil cut and into the freeze dryer. Got the basil done. Got the turkey canned and got the tomato jam made.
I ended up with 9 pints of turkey. On to the tomato jam!
I’m very hesitant to give out canning recipes here, especially when I haven’t followed an “approved” recipe to the letter. Most of you probably know that I have little confidence in most of the alphabet governmental agencies so . . let’s just leave it at that. I will tell you about the changes I made but please be aware that only this recipe is approved. What I do is NOT approved.
According to the USDA, adding peppers and onions, low acid foods, to tomatoes means the recipe is not safe to water bath can and keep on the shelf. OK . . enough of that. I did water bath can it.
This recipe is closer to what I followed. I did not add garlic. I did not add cumin. I like this recipe better without garlic. Vince doesn’t like cumin. I’m quite sure if I had even added a pinch of cumin to this recipe, he would have noticed it. So, I just leave it off.
I left off the lime – everything pertaining to a lime. I left off the apple cider vinegar and added a full cup of bottled (storebought) lemon juice. I don’t taste the lemon juice in the jam but it helps acidify whole recipe. Still not approved though!
I started with 10 pounds of tomatoes but had two more pounds of tomatoes that needed to be used so I used 12 pounds of tomatoes. I do not peel the tomatoes. I rinse them. They were grown in my garden. There were no pesticides used, only organic fertilizer (bone or blood meal) so I wasn’t too worried about them. I usually add 1 jalapeno per 2 pounds of tomatoes and I leave the seeds/membranes in half the jalapenos. That’s kind of arbitrary because sometimes even with the same variety of jalapeno, they can be hot and the next year or even the next plant in the same year, they aren’t so hot. Tasting the jam while it’s cooking doesn’t always help because I notice more heat after it has been canned, cooled and stored for a while but I’ve never made a batch using the 1:2 ratio that was too spicy.
I always add 1/2 cup of sugar per pound of tomatoes. You could get by with less as far as flavor but since there is no pectin in this recipe, the texture may be different if you cut back too much on the sugar. I will use half brown sugar and half white sugar. I left off the molasses . . which is probably about the same as using part brown sugar. I added 1/2 tsp. cloves per 5 pounds of tomatoes.
I think that’s about all the ingredient changes.
I used the Nesco roaster, which makes this job super easy.
You can see from the top photo to this photo how much it cooked down. That took about 3, maybe 3-1/2 hours.
From 12 pounds of tomatoes, I ended up with 17 half pints and one quarter pint. I water bath canned the 17 half pints, kept out the quarter pint and had that with some brie.
Delicious! Vince and I were talking and decided it would be good on vanilla ice cream. I told Vince I’d like to make fizzy water in the Soda Stream and have Tomato Jam Soda! May have to try that.
I’m writing this post late at night after a LONG day in the kitchen so if something doesn’t make sense, please let me know.
Barbara Yarnell says
Hmmm. I water bath can salsa every year and it has peppers and onions. The recipe says to do that but maybe its not the most up to date information. I do love my little electric canner you recommended!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Salsa recipes are generally fine because of the amount of vinegar. If you compare your salsa recipe with the one I liked, there’s probably quite a bit more “acid” (vinegar) added to the salsa recipe and it says a bit more liquid whereas the jam gets thicker so as to be spread vs. dipped and poured.
There’s a science to all of it and while adding acid makes it ok to water bath can, and there are formulas available for “if you add this you need to add this much acid”, it’s just recommended that recipes that have not been tested and approved should not be water bath canned.
Susan Nixon says
I’d trust your recipe and experience over a governmental agency any day. Or even my own! That sounds good, but I wouldn’t use the peppers because I don’t like ANY spicy hotness. My younger son would love it, though. What can I say? Texas Pete and other hot sauces are his favorite ways to eat anything. I’ll be interested to hear about your ice cream experience.