[Tirzah]

I want to make the Chili Sauce recipe in the Ball Blue Book but due to health issues cannot get to it soon. Can I freeze the tomatoes and make this another time? What kind of prep work should I do before freezing? I would appreciate any help

 

[TraciInTexas]

Wash them, and put them in a ZipLoc, burp the air out of it, and can them later! It works well!

 

[barefootflowers]

Wash them, and put them in a ZipLoc, burp the air out of it, and can them later! It works well!

and for me "later" is often so far away that I stick them in the freezer. Easy to skin later too. Just drop the whole, frozen tomatoes into a pot of water. Skins slide right off with just a tad of rubbing.

 

[deb_rn]

No need to put them in hot water for the skins to come off... just let them thaw about 1/2 way and the skins slip off! Cut them in half or quarters, depending on size, to make the bag close easier!

Debbie

 

[Tirzah]

Thank you so much everyone!

 

[flowergurl]

I prefer to take the seeds out of mine before i freeze them.

 

[Just Little Me]

I just keep popping mine in a zip lock all summer and do them all once the temperatures drop. I do not like heating the kitchen in the summer. Waste of electric to cool it.

 

[Tirzah]

Thank you flowergurl and JustLittleMe They are now in the freezer.

 

[TraciInTexas]

As are mine.

 

[unregistered5595]

I had a lot of tomatoes all at once, again this year. I carved off the core and any spots, gave 'em a squeeze in the sink and put them in 5 quart ice cream pails to freeze.
I have 10 of those to use.

Yesterday I took out 4 of them, so 5 gallons of tomatoes and started to boil them down all afternoon, yummy smells. Added 3 cups of chopped onions, cooked it some more.
Cooled it off overnight, about a total of 6 quarts, ran them through a food mill to make ketchup this mornin'.
Boiled up 4 cups of vinegar with a spice bag: 4 t cloves, 2 broken up cinnamon, 1 t cayenne, 4 t celery seed, 2 t allspice, bring to a boil and let sit for 30 minutes, take out the spice bag and add vinegar to tomatoes.
Added 2 cups sugar and 1/3 cup canning salt.
(very close to Ball Blue Book recipe)
Prepped the jars, lids, screw caps, canner.
Boiled the mixture for 1/2 hour stirring a lot.
Canned 14 and 1/2 pints of ketchup. Delicious.
They are coming out of the canner in 5 minutes.