Nostalgia rattling in the kitchen

 

Does everyone have shelves of pantry overflow in their basement (or some other room beyond the kitchen)? Or is it just my family?

This week, we added six pints of canned tomatoes to the wooden shelves downstairs. Len and I have canned apple sauce, apple butter, pickled green beans, pickled peppers, lemon-orange marmalade... But I can't remember having canned tomatoes ourselves. 

I do remember my parents canning tomatoes. 

Now, all these years later, everything happening in our kitchen transported me right back to an early-90s summer at home: The steamy air above the stove and sink, the smell of hot tomatoes, the rattle of jars in the pot of boiling water. The satisfaction of a perfectly blanched tomato skin—one that slips right off the fruit in one piece without taking any flesh with it. On the other hand (literally), the sting of fresh tomato juice on some small wound I forgot I had—it could be a paper cut or a raw cuticle. This time, for me, it was the blister on my thumb from working in the yard earlier that day.

My parents typically canned multiple quarts of tomatoes, fresh out of their garden, maybe combined with tomatoes shared by friends and neighbors with abundant crops. These quarts lined the basement shelves until they became chili or pasta sauce or soup over the winter. Len and I had about 8 3/4 pounds of Roma tomatoes, with a few "regular" round ones mixed in. According to my quick research, this amount would yield 2-3 quarts for canning. I chose to use pint jars instead, mostly because I can boil 5 or 6 of them in a regular kitchen pot rather than hauling out the giant pot that's tall enough to handle quarts for only 3 jars.

Here's a quick rundown of our method:

1. Wash and sterilize the jars and lids.
2. Set up one pot of water boiling and another pot or large bowl with ice water.
3. In batches, gather the tomatoes in a mesh bag and dip into the boiling water for about a minute.
4. Lift the tomatoes out of the boiling water and set in ice water to cool quickly. Remove cooled tomatoes to a clean bowl.
5. In the bottom of each clean pint jar, add one tablespoon of store-bought lemon juice (this acid is required for safer preservation of the tomatoes).
6. Core and quarter the tomatoes.
7. Pack the tomato pieces into each jar, using a butter knife or bubble remover tool to push the tomatoes down to fill the space and release their juices and to force any air bubbles to the surface by running the tool down the sides of the jar. Leave about 1/2 inch of head space. 
8. Add some salt and sugar to the jar.
9. Top each jar with a lid and band and put it in a boiling water bath. Boil the pints for 35 minutes.
10. Allow to cool several hours or overnight, and then check that all the lids have sealed.
11. Store with your other canned goods, and plan to eat them before next tomato season.

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