I too, would love to can roasted tomatoes. But, the only approved recipe I could find was the following...

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Roasted Roma Tomatoes

12 pounds Roma Tomatoes
4 Bulbs of Garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 tbs minced fresh oregano
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp coursely ground black pepper
bottled lemon juice

Roast tomatoes on grill or in broiler until skins begin to wrinkle and become lightly blackened in spots, turning to roast evenly on all side. Remove from heat. Place roasted tomatoes in a paper bag and close tightly. Cool until tomatoes are easy to handle, about 15 minutes. Slip skins off tomatoes, cut in half and remove seeds. Cut into 1/2 inch chunks; set aside. Place garlic on aluminum foil and drizzle olive oil over garlic. Wrap foil around garlic, sealing edges tightly. Roast garlic at 350 degrees until tender, about 30 minutes. Cool garlic until it is easy to handle. Separate cloves of garlic and remove papery skins. Add garlic to tomatoes. Stir in remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat until hot throughout. Add 2 tbs of bottled lemon juice to each quart jar. Ladle hot tomatoes into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two piece caps. Process quarts 1 hour and 25 minutes in a BWB. Yield: about 4 quarts.
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I would make this in a heartbeat but I don't want onions in my roasted tomatoes. I also want to leave the skins on. And I would rather have pints of this instead of quarts.
Any thoughts on that?

Oil is very much an issue in canning, particularly with boiling water bath recipes. Oil insulates botulism spores from penetration by acid and by heat. To compensate you have to increase the levels of acid (note the lemon juice in the second recipe) and/or the heat (via pressure canning).

That's the reason why, with the exception of certain tested formulas like the second one, tomato and oil preparations aren't canned.

Regarding the Roasted Roma Tomatoes, if you wish to leave on the peel you can. Be aware that the peel is where the most bacteria resides, so there will be a slightly elevated risk. The only way I'd handle leaving out the onions is by calculating the volume of tomatoes when chunked. What % of the total volume of onions and tomatoes combined do the onions represent? Then reduce the oil proportionately. Otherwise the ratio of oil to product goes up beyond the original tested level. You want to avoid that.

These are not recommendations. These are choices you might make.

Canning in pints is fine. You can always process in smaller jars. Just don't size up. (In other words, if a recipe specifies pints, don't can in quarts.) Keep the processing time the same.

Carol

cbjej, oil is usually an issue in canning; most recipes don't use it, but a few tested ones do and you want to be careful to follow what they say about it.

ccaggiano,

For what it's worth, my reasoning matches Carol's pretty much.

Pints is always fine instead of quarts

Usually removing onions wouldn't be an issue because they're lower acid than tomatoes, but because there's oil in this recipe I'd be especially hesitant to adjust it.

Carol's logic on that score about keeping the total volume of product the same makes a lot of sense; if you replace the 1 1/2 cup onion with 1 1/2 more cups tomatoes, the total amount of oil per jar shd stay the same.

Also keep in mind that in this recipe, the oil is used in roasting the garlic, in whole bulbs. So I bet most of it ends up on the garlic skins, left behind.

I also note that it's really NOT very much onion --- 12 pounds of romas would be about 24 cups, chopped, with 1.5 cups of onions; the total yield is 16 cups, which would mean about 3 Tbs chopped onion ends up in each pint jar of roasted tomatoes. So maybe you would not much notice them if you just made the recipe as it sits?

If you leave on skins, wash the toms well.

Z

What was the source of the recipe ? That is the first place to start. Unless it meets USDA standards I would not use it.
I would remove the peels since they taste like paper in things.

That's a Ball Blue Book recipe, Linda Lou. It surprised me to see it, but if anyone's going to have a well-tested roasted tomato recipe (aside from the NCHFP), they would be it.

I think it's p. 82??? of the current issue.

This is a good time for a reminder that it's always helpful to source posted recipes. At least provide what information you can. That way responding members can better assess its reliability.

Carol

Thanks, Carol. I am a bit surprised, too, especially with the quart processing time in a BWB canner. I could see a pressure canner, since the NCHFP has the spaghetti sauce recipe with some oil to saute the vegetables in, but it is pressure canned.
That or perhaps pints, but not quarts for this since it is not a sauce, so it is more dense.
I will look at the recipe later on.

Thanks for all the excellent advice...Canning is really an art and as we branch out to do more of it, I am happy to have found this site and all you wonderful advisors.

Linda Lou, I don't know if you had a chance to look at the recipe. It does specify quarts. Their testing must have shown that the 85 minute processing time (with the added lemon juice) is sufficient.

Carol

To the original poster and new member, welcome! Now, since you mention you have questions (and it appears that you're not a seasoned canner yet) please do a couple of things that will help you forever. Purchase yourself (Walmart or many other hardware or produce stores) a copy of the newest Ball's Blue Book. It's a wealth of information, recipes, and should be able to answer most all your questions. Don't depend upon an old 1970's or 1989 copy -- procedures and recipes have changed for safety's sake.

You might also want to check online at the website below.

You're going to find that older, traditional, or "grandma's" recipes are no longer considered safe for canning. So be careful there.

Good luck, Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

I am working on canning these roasted tomatoes - my question is about the lemon juice - first off if I add it and it says 2T for a quart do I halve that with 1 T per pint?

Also I am concerned on the impact on flavor adding that lemon juice - from what I am reading here the oil is what causes the concern. I am planning to pressure can - just bought a brand new unit.

Even with pressure canning the added acid is still recommended when canning tomatoes. Please note that the recipe specifies quarts and provides no instructions or processing time for pints or for pressure canning.

But yes, the general canning tomatoes instructions call for 1 T bottled lemon juice per pint. Citric acid rather than lemon juice is preferred by many if you have it. Personally I have no problems with using the bottled lemon juice.

Dave

Are roma's the only ones that can be used? I have roma paste, amish paste, jetstar, celebrity, better boy, jetstar, just to name a few, but I won't have the amount necessary at one time to can just the romas. Also, can I add other fresh herbs, or will them being fresh change the pH?

Any takers on my previous post?

Willow - the recipe is designed for Roma tomatoes only but any paste type tomatoes could be used. Like your Amish Paste (which curiously many don't consider a true paste type as it is too large and too juicy).

But it really isn't for so-called slicing types such as your Celebrity and Jet Star as they contain far more water than roma/paste-type tomatoes do.

This is not to say that you can't roast any type of tomato - you can. But if you use other types strain/drain them first or it will be extra soupy and diluted.

Jet Star is a prime example of a low-acid tomato so the added bottled lemon juice would become doubly important if you used them.

Dave

Willow,
Well I hope your tomatoes turned out great last year. Many tomatoes are given to me so I have no idea of variety and of course I don't dictate what I'm gifted.
With big juicy watery tomatoes I do one of two things before canning them:
1. If unchared, I cut in half, squeeze them and drop them into a big colander someone gave me years ago. Depending on what I am making, I may also salt them at this stage as it helps draw extra water out. 30 minutes later they are ready to go having lost much moisture. If you are making tomato juice, do not do this as after the tomatoes are cut, an enzime reaction takes place that cause the juice to separate - just as good but you have to shake it.
2. If I am going to make something chared as I am the day after tomorrow, I will use a perforated or screen basket on my BBQ grill. As the tomatoes char they deflate and excess fluids run out. You can find any number of these perforated or wire baskets right now at Costco (2 large ones for $39.95), many specialty stores, and if you want to know what they look like go to Williams-Sonoma.com (a cooking specialty store) and they will have pictures of them.
I use those baskets for onions, peppers, tomatoes, and even small shrimp and you can use the basket almost like a wok except it has lots of holes (to let in the heat and smokey flavor). It keeps you from having to put lots of little things on wood or metal skewers.
Hope this helps.
Jim in So Calif