How to Make Homemade Tomato Sauce - Easily! With Step-by-step Directions, Photos, Ingredients, Recipe and Costs Written Updates:-
Yield: 7 quart jars
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Making canned tomato sauce is something easy to do and will make your tomato dishes taste so much better. Home-canned tomato sauce have been a tradition for many generations. In the middle of the winter, you can use the tomato sauce to make a fresh spaghetti sauce, lasagna, chili, or other tomato-based meals for that fresh garden taste.
Here's how to do it, in easy steps and completely illustrated. This method is so easy, ANYONE can do this! It's a great thing to do with your kids! All you need is a water bath canner (a HUGE pot with a lid and jar tongs can substitute).
If you have a pressure canner, you may want to use this version for pressure canners instead, as it is faster!
I've added free labels for your jars here, in a Word format! Just download, edit, and print in label paper.
And if you'd rather can your tomatoes or freeze your tomatoes, see this page!
Ingredients
- Tomatoes - about 35 to 45 lbs to make 7 quarts of finished sauce
- lemon juice - fresh or bottled, about 1/2 cup
Equipment
- 1 Water bath Canner(a huge pot to sanitize the jars after filling (about $30 to $35 - $30 at mall kitchen stores and local "big box" stores. Note: we sell many sizes and types of canners for all types of stoves and needs - see canning supplies). Tomatoes are on the border between the high-acid fruits that can be preserved in a boiling-water bath and the low-acid fruits, vegetables and meats that need pressure canning
- 1 large pot (to scald the tomatoes, step 3) and 1 small pot to sanitize the lids.
- Pint or 8 ounce canning jars (Ball or Kerr jars can be found at Publix, Kroger, Safeway and local "big box" stores - about $8 per dozen jars including the lids and rings).
- Lids - thin, flat, round metal lids with a gum binder that seals them against the top of the jar. They may only be used once.
- Rings - metal bands that secure the lids to the jars. They may be reused many times.
- Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars)
- Lid lifter (has a magnet to pick the lids out of the boiling water where you sanitize them. ($2 at mall kitchen stores and local "big box" stores, but it's usually cheaper online from our affiliates)
- Jar funnel ($3-Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger and Safeway and local "big box" stores; sometimes even hardware stores)
- Large spoons and ladles
Directions - Step by Step, How to Make Home Canned Tomato Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes
Step 1 - Selecting the tomatoes
It's fun to go pick your own and you can obviously get better quality tomatoes!
At right is a picture of tomatoes from my garden - they are so much better than anything from the grocery store. And if you don't have enough, a pick-your-own farm is the pace to go! At right are 4 common varieties that will work:
| Top left: Beefsteak | Top right: Lemon Boy, yellow |
| Bottom left: Roma, paste-type | Bottom right: Better Boy |
The picture at right shows the best variety of tomato to use: Roma; also called paste tomatoes. They have fewer sides, thicker, meatier walls, and MUCH less water. And that means thicker sauce in less cooking time!
Also, you don't want mushy, bruised or rotten tomatoes!
For thin sauce – An average of 35 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 21 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 53 pounds and yields 10 to 12 quarts of sauce-an average of 5 pounds per quart.
For thick sauce – An average of 46 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 28 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 53 pounds and yields 7 to 9 quarts of sauce-an average of 6½ pounds per quart.
Step 2 - Get the jars and lids sanitizing
The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a "sanitize" cycle. I get that going while I'm preparing everything else, so it's done by the time I'm ready to fill the jars. If you don't have a dishwasher, submerge the jars in a large pot (the canner itself) of water and bring it to a boil.
Be sure to let it go through the rinse cycle to get rid of any soap!
Get the canner heating up
Fill the canner about 1/2 full of water and start it heating (with the lid on).Start the water for the lids
Put the lids into the small pot of boiling water for at least several minutes. Note: everything gets sanitized in the water bath (step 7) anyway, so this just helps to ensure there is no spoilage later!)
Step 3 - Removing the tomato skins
Here's a trick you may not know: put the tomatoes, a few at a time in a large pot of boiling water for no more than 1 minute (30 - 45 seconds is usually enough)
then....
Plunge them into a waiting bowl of ice water.
This makes the skins slide right off of the tomatoes! If you leave the skins in, they become tough and chewy in the sauce, not very pleasant.
Step 4 - Removing the skins, bruises and tough parts
The skins should practically slide off the tomatoes. Then you can cut the tomatoes in quarters and remove the tough part around the stem and any bruised or soft parts.
Why remove the skins? They become tough when you cook them! Some people use a juicer and then cook the resultant juice down. It takes more time, but there's nothing wrong with that approach.
Step 5 - Removing seeds and water
After you have peeled the skins off the tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in half. Now we need to remove the seeds and excess water.
Step 6 - Squeeze of the seeds and water
Just like it sounds: wash your hands then squeeze each tomato and use your finger or a 
spoon to scoop and shake out most of the seeds. You don't need to get fanatical about it; removing just most will do. Another way to do it is to cut each tomato in half, across it, instead of lengthwise. Then just shake the seeds and juice out. Another way to do it is to cut each tomato in half, across it, instead of lengthwise. Then just shake the seeds and juice out.
spoon to scoop and shake out most of the seeds. You don't need to get fanatical about it; removing just most will do. Another way to do it is to cut each tomato in half, across it, instead of lengthwise. Then just shake the seeds and juice out. Another way to do it is to cut each tomato in half, across it, instead of lengthwise. Then just shake the seeds and juice out.
Step 7 - Drain the
tomatoes
Toss the squeezed (Squozen? :) tomatoes into a colander or drainer, while you work on others. This helps more of the water to drain off. You may want to save the liquid: if you then pass it through a sieve, screen or cheesecloth, you have fresh tomato juice; great to drink cold or use in cooking! By draining the water off now, you'll end up with a thicker tomato sauce in less cooking time! And that preserves vitamins (and your sanity).
Step 8 - Combine and bring the sauce to a gentle simmer
Combine the tomatoes in a big pot.
There's generally no need to add liquid, most types of tomatoes have so much water, we will need to boil it down to drive off much of the water to thicken the sauce. Simmer in large-diameter saucepan until sauce reaches desired consistency. Boil until the volume is reduced by about one-third for thin sauce, or by one-half for thick sauce.
You don't need to overcook it; just bring it to boiling to sanitize it and cook down the tomatoes.
As they cook, the tomatoes will fall apart into sauce with out much need of mushing!
Step 9 - Fill the jars with sauce
Fill them to within 1/2-inch of the top.
NOTE: if you want to freeze the sauce instead, just fill your freezer containers (I like Ziploc freezer bags in the quart size), fill them completely, eliminate air pockets, seal them and pop them in the freezer. You're done!
Step 10 - Add 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice and liquid
After you fill each quart jar with tomatoes, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (or 1 Tablespoon per pint jar). This helps to reduce the odds of spoilage and to retain color and flavor. Then make sure it is filled to ¼-inch of the top with sauce.Step 11 - Put the lids and rings on
Just screw them on snugly, not too tight. If the is any tomato on the surface of the lip of the jar, wipe it off first with a clean dry cloth or paper towel.
Be sure the contact surfaces (top of the jar and underside of the ring) are clean to get a good seal!
Step 12 - Boil the jars in the water bath canner
Put them in the canner and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water. Keep the water boiling. Process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 35 minutes for pints and 40 minutes for quarts. Remember to adjust the time if you are at a different altitude other than sea level! Pressure canners work better for tomato sauce and other low acid foods - you'll get less spoilage with a pressure canner.
I prefer a pressure canner as the higher temperatures and shorter cooking time result in better flavor and less spoilage. For more information or to order one, click on Pressure Canners. The recipe and directions for pressure canning tomatoes are coming.
Recommended process time for Standard Tomato Sauce in a boiling-water canner.
| |||||
| Process Time at Altitudes of | |||||
| Style of Pack | Jar Size | 0 - 1,000 ft | 1,001 - 3,000 ft | 3,001 - 6,000 ft | Above 6,000 ft |
| Hot | Pints | 35 min | 40 | 45 | 50 |
| Quarts | 40 | 45 | 50 | 55 | |
Step 13 - Done
Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) You can then remove the rings if you like, but if you leave them on, at least loosen them quite a bit, so they don't rust in place due to trapped moisture. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok.
This document was adapted from the "Complete Guide to Home Canning," Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539, USDA, revised 1994.
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