Dry-bottled tomatoes .... so good to eat, so quick to make
Forget everything I wrote about preserving tomatoes in brine - they're good, but you've got all that salt water to chuck. No, the most delicious way to preserve a tomato - beating slow-roasted hands down - is to bottle them dry with a little salt and sugar. Really fabulous - and you can just pour the contents of your jar into a saucepan and heat it up for an instant sauce.
You'll need 1tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar per 500g of tomatoes. You must pack them as tight as you can, because they collapse down to about the halfway line. Use sterilised bottles (10 minutes at 100C in the steam oven). Pack the jars, close the lid; 60 minutes at 100C.
If you don't have a steam oven, which let's face it, most of us don't (I'm borrowing one at the moment from Miele), you can do this using the slow-water method, the quick-water method, the oven method, or a pressure cooker. All more of a faff, because you have to be keen, and, above all, you have to be there. With the steam oven: 2 minutes' to pack the jar, and that's it - Ping! and it's done. No need even to worry about whether you can fit the result into the deep freeze.
Pictures soon ... I just wanted to get the method down before I lost the piece of paper with my notes.
PS if you want some details about the other methods, let me know and I'll post them ... this experiment with bottling/canning has involved consulting a big pile of books, so, for a few days only (before I forget), I am an encyclopaedia of knowledge about preserving tomatoes in a jar.
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Preserving tomatoes in brine
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Links to tomatoes on other blogs
Fried green tomatoes - haven't you always wanted to know how to make these? Here's how, from the blog at the Whistlestop Cafe
David Lebovitz's take on an heirloom tomato salad
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How DO you say Miele?
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7 comments:
My local market sells tomatoes by the sackload for pennies in the summer, this will be a great way to preserve some of the glut.
How are you getting on with the steam oven?
Hi Joanna, long time no hear. Great way of preserving. And funny, Miele have offered me a steam oven for trial too?! Might try this out if I go for it.
Cheers
David
Hi there,
Love your blog!
Would appreciate any tips on how to Jar Tomatoes the regular way(easiest without the steam oven)!
Thanks a bunch!!
Nancy
What's the oven method? Would be useful as we have a few tomato farms round here.
I have a Miele steam oven and would love to try the dry bottle method, but I have some questions on the processing. Did you cut the tomatoes and or removed the skin before putting them in the jar?
thx
Did you post results for the other methods as don't have a Miele steam oven
There's quite a lot about preserving tomatoes on this blog, you'll find some links in this post. I don't have a steam oven any more, Miele lent it to me, and these posts were a way of working out whether to get one. Not yet, but maybe one day.
Joanna
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