The Ball / Bernardin Complete book has a tested recipe for canning tomatoes (whole, halved or quartered) in large 1.5 litre / quart jars.
Each 1.5 litre (quart) jar will hold about 2 kg (4.5 lbs) of tomatoes. The 1 litre / quart jars seem tiddy in comparison, only holding about 1.3 kg / 3 lbs.
You can do a raw pack, or a hot pack. Hot packs always provide better quality, for longer, but Ball / Bernardin does leave the choice up to you.
The book is quite firm otherwise, though, about your sticking with the conditions of the recipe and not deviating: don’t use tomato juice as the packing liquid, and don’t try to pressure can.
To be clear, the USDA and NCHFP do not have access to the lab data from the testing on this size of jars, only Ball / Bernardin labs do, so you need to approach them with any questions, not the NCHFP.
Other 1.5 litre jar tomato recipes:
Tomato sauce in 1.5 litre (quart) jars.
Tomato juice in 1.5 litre (quart) jars
See also: Canning tomato products in 1.5 litre (quart) jars
The recipe
Jar size choices: 1.5 litre (1.5 US quart)
Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning
Yield: varies
Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)
Processing time: 45 minutes
Tomatoes in 1.5 litre jars
Ingredients
- tomatoes
- water
- lemon juice (bottled. OR citric acid)
- salt (optional. OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)
Instructions
- Peel and core tomatoes (no need to remove seeds.)
- You can leave peeled tomatoes whole, or halve or quarter them.
- Put a kettle of water on to boil.
- If you are doing raw pack, skip down to the ACIDIFY step.
- If you are doing hot pack, put tomatoes in a large pan, and add boiling water as need to cover. (If a lot of liquid is coming off the tomatoes then you will need less water.)
- Bring to a boil over medium heat, uncovered, stirring very carefully so as not to break everything up.
- Lower heat to a simmer and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
- ACIDIFY: To each 1.5 litre (quart) jar that will hold tomatoes, first add EITHER 3 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice OR ¾ teaspoon citric acid.
- SEASON: To each 1.5 litre (quart) jar, optionally add 1 ½ teaspoons of either salt OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub.
- Pack tomatoes into jars.
- Leave a generous 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
- Cover the tomatoes with hot liquid. Use hot liquid from the pot if you are doing the hot pack. If you are doing the raw pack, your hot liquid will be boiling water straight out of the kettle. If you are doing hot pack and run out of pot liquid, then use boiling water from the kettle.
- Debubble, adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process jars for 45 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
Nutrition
1.5 litre / US quart jars from various makers, with a half-litre (1 pint) jar from Ball for size comparison.
Reference information
How to water bath process.
How to steam can.
When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.
For salt substitute, non-bitter, non-clouding Herbamare Sodium-Free was used.
Note that if altitude adjustments for you would push processing time over 45 minutes, that the steam canning researchers recommended that no canning over 45 minutes be done in the classic top-hat style steam canners because they might run out of water.
Recipe notes
- You will need about 2 kgs (5 lbs) tomatoes per 1.5 litre / quart jar.
- The reason you add the lemon juice or citric acid first is that often in the “heat of things” while packing jars, people forget which jars they acidified and didn’t. By making it always your first step, you always know.
- Pack in water only, not added tomato juice, as that is denser than water and increases processing time substantially. The book says, “We do not recommend using 1.5 L jars for tomatoes packed in tomato juice.”
- If you are doing the hot pack method, it is however fine to use the liquid that comes off the tomatoes as it is thinner than “tomato juice” per se which is a product thickened through a bit of boiling down.
- If you are doing a hot pack, the book notes about heating the tomatoes: “For best results when canning whole tomatoes, do not layer them in the pan. Quartered and halved tomatoes can be layered.” It’s difficult to imagine, though, how when you are canning any quantity of tomatoes at all you could avoid layering them.
- The book emphasizes, “These jars may be used to process tomatoes in a boiling-water canner, but only in those recipes for which a specific time is tested for the size of jar. 1.5 L (quart) jars are not recommended for processing tomatoes or any food in a pressure canner, as suitable heat processing studies to determine safe processing times have not been established.”
- Note this procedure is NOT certified only for 1.5 litre / quart jars, NOT larger 2 quart jars.
- To be clear, this page deals only with the Le Parfait “Familia Wiss” line of jars with the two-piece lid system, not their bail-type lid system line-up of jars (which we do use for refrigerated and dry storage) or their recipes. For shelf-stable canning purposes, HealthyCanning only explores within the realms of USDA recommendations and recipes from reputable sources who can to USDA standards.
For comparison purposes, here are some 1.5 litre / quart jars compared to a 1 litre / quart Kerr jar.
Note that approved 1.5 litre recipes are only for three home canned products alone, all of them simple tomato ones, and, that this guidance does NOT apply to the larger 2 quart / litre / half-gallon Ball / Bernardin jars, which are recommended for apple and grape juice only. Ball and Bernardin explicitly recommend against using that size of jars for tomatoes.
Recipe source
- Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Ball / Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto: Robert Rose. 2015. Page 354.
Modifications made:
- none
Each of these jars can hold six of the measuring cup shown.
Nutrition information
Regular version
Per cup / 8 oz / 250 ml:
- 41 calories, 24 mg sodium
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
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