📋The Tradition of Canning Tomato Sauce in a Barrel
Canning tomato sauce is an old Italian tradition, an occasion to get family and friends together. With such a large quantity to make, you need a barrel! A low cost and low waste methodology everyone can follow.
Course Canned & Jam
Cuisine Italian
Keyword canned tomato sauce, Italian tomato sauce, preserved tomato sauce
Canning tomato sauce is a social event, call your friends and family to help
Cleaning the tomatoes
Cut the tomatoes into 4 sections, removing the green connection of the stem and any damaged parts.
Pre boiling the tomatoes
As soon as a bucket is ready, pour the tomatoes into a large caldron to cook while covered, stir from time to time to make sure they don't stick to the bottom.
Strain the water from the tomatoes
Roughly line the crates with some old clean towels
Align the crates over the drainage grid so the water of the tomatoes can drain away
Once the tomatoes have softened and lost their consistency, poured them back into the crates over the towels
Squeeze the tomatoes inside the towels
Grinding the tomatoes
Grinde the tomatoes in the grinding machine, one, two, three times, to make sure no pulp is left on the skin.
Zero waste
The tomato skin and the parts of the tomatoes that were removed earlier will go into the compost, to fertilize more tomatoes plants for next year.
Filling the cans
The jars should be sterilised
Put a basil leaf inside each jar and fill them with the tomato sauce
Preparing the barrel
Place the barrel over the burners
Place a potato bag at the bottom of the barrel
Putting the jars filled with tomato sauce in the barrel
Put a band around each jar
Layer the jars placing potato’s bags over them until they filled the barrel to the top
Fill the barrel with water all the way to the top
Placed a cover on top, and a brick to stop the jars from floating and banging while boiling
Start the fire and wait for the water to boil
Boiling the canned tomato sauce
Let the jars boil for 1 hour
Turn off the fire and wait until the next day for the water to cool down completely before removing the jars
A vacuum has now formed inside the jars and the sauce will keep for the winter
Notes
Use long tomatoes, San Marzano are the best if you can find them
Make it a yearly event and invite friends and family to help
There is no skin in the tomato sauce but you don't necessarily have to peel them as there are grinder machines that will do that for you.
If you don't have a grinder you can peel the tomatoes by immersing them in hot water for 5 minutes. The skin will then come out very easily.
Remove the green or any damaged part of the tomatoes before pre-boiling them.
Drain the pre-boiled tomatoes before grinding them otherwise, the sauce will be too watery.
When you grind them, make sure no skin falls back into the pan with the sauce.
Re-process the discharged skin at least twice, there is still plenty of tomato pulp to be recovered.
To can the tomato sauce follow exactly all the procedures to make sure the jars are sealed, properly sterilized and a vacuum created inside the jar to preserve the sauce.
You need to sterilize the glass jars before using them. The easiest way is to wash them in the dishwasher at a high temperature. Otherwise, you can just boil them
While you can reuse the glass jars, every year you should buy new silicon sealers.
Once you boil the jars filled with tomato sauce, it is very important you leave the jars in the water to cool down, that is when the vacuum that preserves the sauce forms inside the jars.
Once the jar is open, it is recommended to use the sauce within a few days and store it in the fridge.
Use jars of different dimensions so if you need only a small amount of sauce you can open the small jars.
Always remember to label the jars with the date and the content.