For anyone who's never blanched tomatoes,
I thought I'd share a brief tutorial with you.
During the summer season, since our tomatoes tend to ripen at differing times, we've found it to be SO MUCH EASIER to blanch/skin the tomatoes as they come and freeze them until the entire harvest is completed. Then in one fell swoop, we
can can can can can until we're done (usually all within the span of a weekend). It works for us because we don't have canning paraphernalia lying about all summer. :-)
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So, without further ado:
Blanching 101Step 1: wash/rinse tomatoes; core
*if you have super juicy tomatoes, wait to core them*
Step 2: slit a (+) on the bottom
*this aids in the peeling process later*
Step 3: bring your
water to a rolling boil;
then carefully drop tomatoes in the water; set timer for 2 min.
*2 min. is only an approximation*
For large batches I often reuse the hot water- just bring it back to a rolling boil again (which it will do quickly since it's already still hot).
Step 4: remove tomatoes from boiling water and
immediately place in
COLD water
*this stops the cooking process*
To test whether your tomatoes are ready to be removed from the boiling water, they should start to split and peel and look like this:
Step 5: peel the skins off
*if you left the core in due to having a juicy tomato, now's the time to core it*
They should just slide ride off with ease.
Step 6: bag it and allow to cool
Step 7: seal and freeze (deep freeze)
When you're ready to start canning, simply thaw!
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