Stewed Tomatoes and Vegetables

This is a delicious mixture of stewed tomatoes flavoured with fragrant celery, green pepper and onion.

You could use it as a time-saving base for casseroles, soups, rice dishes, pasta sauces, as well as for many Creole recipes.

This mixture is pressure canned. See also: Minnesota Mix for water-bath and steam canners

This recipe is from the Ball / Bernardin Complete Book.

Contents

1 The recipe
- 1.1 Acidify the jars
2 Recipe notes
3 Reference information
4 Recipe source
5 Nutrition
- 5.1 Regular version with sugar and salt
- 5.2 Sugar and salt-free version

The recipe

Jar size choices: Either half-litre (1 US pint) OR 1 litre (1 US quart)

Processing method: Pressure canning only

Yield: 7 x half-litre (pint) jars or 3 x litre (US quart) jars

Headspace: 3 cm (1 inch)

Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)

Processing time: Half-litres (pints) 15 minutes; litres (quarts) 20 minutes.

Stewed Tomatoes and Vegetables

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 60 mins

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins

Yield: 7 x half-litre (pint) jars or 3 x litre (US quart) jars

Ingredients

4 kg tomatoes (Measured after after peeling and quartering. 16 cups / 8¾ lbs)
125 finely chopped celery ( 1 cup / 4 oz / 1 large stalk)
75 g onion coarsely diced (Measured after prep. ½ cup / 3 oz / 1 medium-sized onion)
50 g green pepper coarsely diced (Measured after prep. ¼ cup / 1.5 oz / half a medium-sized green pepper)
1 tablespoon sugar OR few drops liquid stevia
2 teaspoons salt or non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub
Bottled lemon juice OR citric acid

Instructions

Wash tomatoes. Peel them.
Core the tomatoes (no need to seed) and quarter them.
Put tomatoes into a pot 6 litres (quarts) or larger.
Add everything from the celery down to and including the salt (OR salt sub.)
Cover the pot, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Lower to a strong simmer, and let simmer covered for another 10 minutes or until vegetables have softened.
Ladle into jars, distributing solids and liquid equally.
Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace.
Acidify the jars (see below.) This is a mandatory safety step.
Debubble, adjust headspace.
Wipe jar rims.
Put lids on.
Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)
Processing time: half-litre (US pint) jars for 15 minutes OR 1 litre (US quart) jars for 20 minutes.

Acidify the jars

Acidify the jars by adding to them either lemon juice or citric acid.

Half-litre (1 US pint) jar: one tablespoon bottled lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon citric acid; OR
1 litre (1 US quart) jar: two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid.

Recipe notes

You will want to start with about 4.25 kg / 9 1/2 lbs of unprepped tomato.
The acidification is important, do not skip. The short pressure canning time combined with the acidification shows that the pressure canning is just being used as a way to speed up the processing. By itself without the acidification, the processing time might not be sufficient.
The quantity of added veg may seem skimpy, but it actually works out to be a generous amount. Do not increase the amount of onion, celery or pepper, as increasing them will affect the pH balance and thus the safety of the product.
Don’t forget to wash all veg before cutting into them.