Hi everyone,
I've been water-bath canning for a long time. Normally of course I only use safe, tested recipes direct from Ball or NCHFP etc. My issue is tomato paste! The "official" recipes I can find all call for making it on the stovetop, which frankly I don't understand. In my experience, it is literally not possible to simmer tomatoes for hours on the stovetop until they become thick enough to be called paste, without burning them. I prefer making tomato paste in the oven, where it can cook down at a super low temp for hours. However, I've yet to find an official recipe for canning tomato paste after oven-roasting it like this.
I just found this one: https://www.healthycanning.com/roasted-tomato-paste
which says the source is an edition of the Ball book. To me, the recipe looks good–seems acidic enough, doesn't use olive oil, etc.–and I also brought the tomatoes to a rolling boil and boiled for like 20 mins before I moved them to the oven. I personally feel like this is a solid safe recipe BUT I can't find the source online. Does anyone have the 2016 Ball book and can confirm it's in there?
by Johann_Sebastian_Dog
6 Comments
Heathy Canning is one of the safe site that this subreddit supports.
This is a safe source. But I have done it stove top– it takes a while and you have to keep the temp pretty low. It also helps a lot it you have a heavy bottomed pot like a Dutch oven.
Healthy Canning is a safe source, and at the bottom of every recipe on their site it gives you what their source was. This particular recipe’s source is:
>**Recipe source**
>Roasted Tomato Paste. In: Butcher, Meredith L., Ed. The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. New York: Oxmoor House. 2016. Page 206.
The easiest way is to use a food dehydrator until they are just crispy dry and then run them through your blender until they’re powder. Do make sure you remove the seeds and jelly it can be bitter.
We prefer to use an induction stove with a heavy bottom stainless steel pot. We keep the temperature around 275*F to avoid caramelization (which mostly happens above 300). We stir often at the beginning, and constantly at the end. Takes about 6 hours.
Some people use an electric roaster to cook down their tomatoes. I’ve only made tomato sauce this way though, not paste.