Yours sound delicious.

Personally, I add about half as much oregano as basil. Never more because the oregano will overpower the basil. I also add just a little fennel seed for the original "Italian" flavor (basil, oregano, garlic, fennel, and red pepper).

Also, you may want to consider some very finely diced carrot (or carrot pulp) to sweeten the stew. The French use onion, carrot, and celery, while the Creole triumpherate is onion, celery, and green pepper. I use all four and add fresh garlic (plus the basil, oregano, fennel, and red pepper).

Whatever you do, don't forget to saute some fresh okra to add to the stewed tomatoes when you get ready to eat them. Yum, yum!

Bon Temps, Bill

I add zucchini and summer squash to mine along with peppers, onions, celery seed and basil. I simmer about 1 hour before putting into jars. I pressure can for 25 minutes at 10 lbs. for quarts. I add 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp sugar to each quart because that's the way I like it.

Shirley, I just canned tomatoes with summer squash and/or zucchini and 2 onion slices today. The pressure canning time was 30 minutes for pints and 35 for quarts....thinking you should up your time a bit to be safe?

SOS

SOS, you are correct, you need to process the pints for 30 min. quarts 35 min.

Thanks SOS and Linda Lou. I'll up the time for the next batch.

Thanks for all the good ideas. I'll be putting up some more today and add some other stuff. Have to go out and pick some this morning as it is suppose to start raining tomorrow.

Bonnie

In my stewed, I use the Salsa screen on the VIllaware for the tomatoes. I use fresh and dried peppers, also fresh and dried celery and onions. Add garlic, but no oregano or basil. These are only added afterwards if you want an italian tang to them.

I'm glad this was asked since I've been wondering if my recipe is safe. And going through my cupboard I have a few jars from '04 and am wondering if they are safe to eat. A few of the jars are darker than the rest but are all sealed. My recipe is 4qts tomatoes, 1 c celery, 1/2 c onion, 1/4 c green pepper, 1 tbs sugar, 3 cloves garlic. I processed these for 15min. Should I pitch these jars and should I process longer next time?

Hoosiermom,
Here are the directions from USDA on stewed tomatoes:
Shirley's and SOS have added zucchini, which needs a longer processing time. There are directions for canning it, too.
STEWED TOMATOES
(about 3 pint jars)

2 quarts chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped green peppers

1/2 cup chopped onions

2 teaspoons celery salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients. Cover and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Pour hot into hot jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rims. Adjust lids and process in a dial-gauge pressure canner at 11 pounds pressure OR in a weighted-gauge pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure:

Pints .....................15 minutes

Quarts...................20 minutes

I don't know if you cooked it all and then hot packed or how you processed them. I am assuming you mean pressure canner. Also, were they pints? You did add an extra amount of celery and some garlic to yours, so that lowers the acidity some.
If you do decide to save them, but sure to boil them at least 10 min. before you taste them.

can i ask what the water bath canning time would be for these?

For BWB use 40 minutes for pints or 50 minutes for quarts.

>>I don't know if you cooked it all and then hot packed or how you processed them. I am assuming you mean pressure canner. Also, were they pints? You did add an extra amount of celery and some garlic to yours, so that lowers the acidity some.
If you do decide to save them, but sure to boil them at least 10 min. before you taste them.Yes, I cooked them all and hot packed them and yes to the pressure canner. Boiling for 10 min, what will that do for the tomatoes (is this for killing potential bacteria/mold)?

I'm not sure if I'll save them all. I was thinking of pitching the dark ones, they just don't look appealing to me.

Now as for keeping the jars, lids hot during the cooking time, I keep them in an oven instead of water. Should I change this habit?

You should keep the lids in hot water to keep the sealing compound soft. The jars can be kept in the oven. Honestly, I just pull them out of the dishwasher and use them.
Yes, boiling homecanned foods for at least 10 min. before tasting can destroy any toxins present in the foods.
Personally, I would dump them and learn from it. The motto is "When in doubt, throw it out !"

Stewed tomatoes must be pressure canned, not water bathed. They are a combination of tomatoes and low acid vegetables, that makes the product a low acid one. So, it needs to be pressure canned.
The USDA only give a pressure canned time. It says that since they contain the low acid vegetables only the pressure canner is safe.
You can read the information on this link. Also, the Ball Blue Book only gives pressure canning times.

Here is a link that might be useful: University of Georgia.

Because I always add the extra acid to mine and used dried celery, onions and peppers, they absorb some of the juices and acid that I add. I do process these for at least 40 minutes and they are poured in jars while they were still boiling. I avoid the chopped basil and other herbs now, but do add a couple of whole basil leaves to each jar before filling. These are plucked out when I pour out the tomatoes when they are opened. The garlic is also added if I want that flavor, but when I make something like a chicken dish thats not Italian flavors, I don't add garlic, but instead use dill weed or some other herbs at the time of cooking and serving. Ever had dill weed cooked with fresh mushrooms, that were mixed at the last minute with a tomato sauce and sauted beef tips, served over rice or wide egg noodles.. Yum.. My lids are sitting in simmmering (not boiling) water, and the jars are run through the dishwaser and are left in there while its still in the drying heat cycle, and I remove only what I fill immediately.

I keep the lids in water but put the pot in the oven with the jars. I don't have a dishwasher unless you count me and hubby. If I'm understanding this correctly, it seems that I did this canning the right way except for the addition of garlic and extra celery. Are these additions, a bad thing and should not be repeated or can I still use this recipe? And how long do home canned tomatoes typically keep. I only ran into this problem (jars are 2yrs old) because hubby went on a fad diet (off it now and doing better with portion control) and the kids, except the baby, don't like red sauce. I don't have a problem with pitching the jars and the recipe if it's not safe. I just know I'll get bombarded with questions from mom and grandma, so I could use some ammo. Sorry if I'm repeating myself. I just want to understand this all correctly and do it right next time. Also, about boiling canned foods, would this include salsa?

Adding extra vegetables is not safe to do, it lowers the acid level, which makes a product unsafe. You need to stick to the total amount of vegetables listed in a recipe. In order to keep it safe, you can follow the recipe I posted, so you know what quantities to use. If you want garlic flavor, you can safely add dried garlic powder.
Storage time for foods is 12 months for best quality. After that, if they were properly canned, of course, they are still good for several years as long as they are still sealed and show no signs of spoilage.
Boiling foods for at least 10 min. ( some food safety sites say 20 min.) is supposed to destroy botulism if present. You can't see, taste, or smell botulism, unlike other spoilage organisms.
This is what is said, with the link to follow:
If you home-can products, make sure you use proper equipment, proper containers to can in, and up-to-date procedures. Before eating, bring home canned low-acid foods to a hard rolling boil for 10 to 20 minutes, stirring several times. This will destroy any toxin present.

Here is a link that might be useful: Celmson university food safety.

Stewed tomatoes must be pressure canned, not water bathed. They are a combination of tomatoes and low acid vegetables, that makes the product a low acid one. So, it needs to be pressure canned.
The USDA only give a pressure canned time. It says that since they contain the low acid vegetables only the pressure canner is safe. You can read the information on this link. Also, the Ball Blue Book only gives pressure canning times.

That's not true - there are other safe methods other than the USDA recommended. Here is an extension recipe very similar to the one above that can be safely waterbathed. Note that it has an even greater ratio of low acid items.

TOMATO MIXTURE

* 12 cups tomatoes
* 1 cup chopped celery
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 1/2 cup chopped pepper
* 3 tsp. salt

This mixture of ingredients achieves the necessary acidity for water bath processing. Do not use the varieties of tomatoes listed previously with pH values near or above 4.6. Do not add any more pepper, onion, or celery than indicated. This will reduce the acidity of the mixture.

Quantity
The amount of ingredients listed yield 7 pints (for 7 quarts, double the ingredient amounts).

Procedure
Simmer the vegetables for 10 minutes. Pack into clean, hot canning jars. Leave a 1/2-inch headspace. Apply two-piece canning lids following the manufacturer's instructions. Boiling Water Bath:

* Pints, 40 minutes,
* Quarts, 50 minutes

Malonanddonna, can you provide a link to the Extension document so canners can check which varieties of tomatoes are alluded to? Thanks,

Carol

No problem Carol :-)

I also posted the list on another recent post.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Canning Tomatoes

Thanks, Malonand donna. I missed the other post. It's nice to be able to download and save these on computer for future reference.

Carol

You may find that in an oudated book, perhaps. Not in any of my current books.

You may find that in an oudated book, perhaps. Not in any of my current books.

Oh for goodness sake! It came straight from an extension website not an outdated book. I even posted a link after Carol requested it. Do you always dismiss information without even reading it?!? I believe you've stated before that extension websites are trusted sources of recipes.

So, unless a person has the proper variety of tomato, then it won't be safe to can....
If you have these :
"Unfortunately, a few varieties may have a pH above or close to 4.6. These include Ace, Ace 55VF, Beefmaster Hybrid, Big Early Hybrid, Big Girl, Big Set, Burpee VF Hybrid, Cal Ace, Delicious, Fireball, Garden State, Royal Chico, and San Marzano."
then the ph is too high to safely can that way.

(It is opposite from what some people think, the higher the ph, the lower the acid.)

So, how many people are going to use these and not realize it ? Does everyone know what kind of tomatoes they have?
That is the problem with the Minnesota guidelines, they don't include all tomatoes as being safe to process this way.
That is why we only recommend USDA guidelines for tomatoes, not the Minnesota guidelines.
That is why USDA guidelines say to pressure can stewed tomatoes, there are variables and exceptions.

So, unless a person has the proper variety of tomato, then it won't be safe to can...

Of course, that's in the instructions of the recipe I posted, now that you actually read it.

we only recommend

Do you have a mouse in your pocket?

You've stated quite often that it's safe to follow extension guidelines. Is that no longer true?

I thought this was a good thread and didn't deserve to end on such a low note. So I'm taking the liberty of copying over the 3 recipies & adjusting the quantities to 4 qts tomatoes for easier comparison.

Hoosierm0m
4 qt. tomatoes
1 c celery
1/2 c onion
1/4 c pepper
total 1 3/4 - 2 c non acid veg

Linda lou / USDA (x 2)
4 qt. tomatoes (=2 x 2 c)
1 c pepper (=2 x 1/2 c)
1 c onion (=2 x 1/2 c)
4 tsp. sugar (=2 x 2 tsp.)
4 tsp. celery salt(=2 x 2 tsp.)
1/2 tsp. salt (=2 x 1/4 tsp.)

total 2 c non acid veg

Malonanddonna / Minnesota Extension (x4/3)
4 qt. tomatoes (=4/3 x 3 qt.(12c/4c per qt.))
1 1/3 c celery (=4/3 x 1 c)
2/3 c onion (=4/3 x 1/2 c)
2/3 c pepper (=4/3 x 1/2 c)
4 tsp. salt (=4/3 x 1/2 c)

total 2 2/3 c non acid veg

So there are my re-writes of the recipies for comparison. Hope this helps get the discussion back on track.

*Note* I didn't copy the cooking/canning times, or yields, as I was manipulating these only to make comparing the recipes/ingredients easier. Look in the messages above for the originals.

Thanks for the conversion of the recipes. I kinda did that in my head instead of on paper and realized that the Minnesota recipe had even more low acid vegetables than Hoosiermom's recipe and could still be processed by BWB (and with no added acid).

This is the respons I got from Colorado State University. I tried emailing Minnesota, got an email saying they didn't answer questions, had to contact Iowa state. I am doing that now, waiting for their response, which I will post if I receive one.
This is my copied and pasted email I got today.
Response (Mary Schroeder) - 09/13/2006 12:48 PM

The different products and processes can be confusing, so it is good that you are checking. You are right that many Extension Fact Sheets do not list stewed tomatoes. They are a thicker product and therefore do require pressure canning in order to ensure adequate heat penetration. Please refer to the University of Geogia's National Center for Home Food Preservation site at www.uga.edu/nchfp/ under canning tomatoes for the recipe and processing time for stewed tomatoes. They are the test site for all the USDA-tested recipes and therefore have the most reliable information. Stewed tomatoes should be processed at 11 lb psi (plus 1/2 lb per 1,000 ft increase in elevation above sea level) for the following times: pints 15 min. quarts 20 min. To clarify the information that you saw on the U of Minnesota site, they conducted their own research for processing the tomato mixture. As stated on their site, it can be water bath processed ONLY if you are sure the tomatoes are a high acid variety, and that the ingredients are not altered. This method has a very long processing time in addition to recommending that the mixture be boiled for 10 min. prior to serving. If you only have a water bath canner, then you could follow these instructions; however, you should also add lemon juice if you do (1T per pint; 2T per quart). The lemon juice is not necessary when pressure canning. Hope this all makes sense.
Good luck with your canning.