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.
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
A delicious tomato and vegetable mixed from Ball and Bernardin.
Ingredients
- 4 kg tomatoes (Measured after after peeling and quartering. 16 cups / 8 3/4 lbs)
- 125 celery (finely chopped. 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. 1/4 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)
- lemon juice (bottled OR citric acid)
Instructions
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Wash tomatoes. Peel them.
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Core the tomatoes (no need to seed) and quarter them.
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Put tomatoes into a pot 6 litres (quarts) or larger.
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Add everything from the celery down to and including the salt (OR salt sub.)
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Cover the pot, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pot.
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Lower to a strong simmer, and let simmer covered for another 10 minutes or until vegetables have softened.
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Ladle into jars, distributing solids and liquid equally.
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Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace.
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Acidify the jars (see below.) This is a mandatory safety step.
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Debubble, adjust headspace.
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Wipe jar rims.
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Put lids on.
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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.
Reference information
How to pressure can.
When pressure canning, you must adjust the pressure for your altitude.
More information about Salt-Free Canning in general.
Recipe source
Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Ball / Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto: Robert Rose. 2015. Page 378.
Modifications: none.
Nutrition
Regular version with sugar and salt
Per 250 ml (1 cup / 8 oz):
- 59 calories, 355 mg sodium
Sugar and salt-free version
Per 250 ml (1 cup / 8 oz):
- 56 calories, 21 mg sodium
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
Can tomatoes be canned using a cold bath without adding salt and sugar?
Tomato products require processing in either a hot water bath canner, a steam canner, or a pressure canner (there are only a very few recipes developing for pressure canning tomato products.)