Category: Preservation

Posted in Preservation

September in Review: What We Put Back

Posted on by simplegoodfood

September has been a month of harvest, planning, preserving, and putting a little something back.

We started with fresh produce and the simple question of what we could do with it. From there, we worked our way through using what was plentiful, freezing food in practical amounts for a small household, building a more useful pantry, and finally moving into home canning.

It has been a busy month in the kitchen.

But the real goal was never to see how many jars we could fill or how much food we could squeeze into a freezer.

The goal was to make future meals easier.

🌾 September’s Harvest Journey

If you missed some of this month’s posts, these weekly roundups are the easiest way to catch up.

Harvest Begins

September started with the basics: recognizing what is available, making the most of seasonal produce, and thinking about preservation before food gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator.

Harvest Time: Putting a Little Back for Tomorrow
Read the Article!
Garden Harvest Beef & Vegetable Soup
There is something wonderfully practical about a pot of vegetable soup.
Check out this recipe
Fresh Corn & Zucchini Skillet
Fresh summer corn and tender zucchini come together in this simple one-skillet side dish.
Check out this recipe
Harvest Chicken Rice Bowl
There is something wonderfully satisfying about a bowl built from simple ingredients.
Check out this recipe
Pressure-Canning Ground Beef
Check out this recipe
Autumn Harvest Rice Bowl
Roasted squash or sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, rice, and tender beef or chicken come together in this cozy fall-inspired Build-A-Bowl.
Check out this recipe
Smart Shopper Spotlight: What’s Worth Buying in September?
Check out this recipe
Harvest Vegetable Fried Rice
Give leftover vegetables and cooked rice a delicious second life with this easy one-skillet fried rice.
Check out this recipe
End-of-Market Vegetable Soup
A flexible, no-waste vegetable soup designed for all those little bits of produce left after market day.
Check out this recipe

It was the beginning of our September theme:

Today’s harvest can become tomorrow’s dinner.

Make the Most of September’s Harvest

Once we had an idea of what was available, we moved on to making good use of it.

Some foods were ready to eat right away. Others were worth buying when prices were good and putting a little aside for later.

When the Farm Stand is Full
Read the Article!
Smart Shopper Spotlight: What to Buy When It’s in Season
Read the Article!
Harvest Chicken & Vegetable Skillet
Tender pieces of chicken are cooked with sweet corn, zucchini, bell pepper, onion, and tomatoes for a simple skillet dinner that tastes like the best of late summer and early fall.
Check out this recipe
Put a Little Back: Sweet Corn — Today’s Corn, Tomorrow’s Meals
Read the Article!
How Much Should You Actually Preserve?
Read the Article!
Harvest Corn & Chicken Rice Bowls
There is something satisfying about putting food away when it's at its best and then actually using it later.
Check out this recipe
Farm Stand Vegetable Fritatta
When the farm stand is full, make a frittata!
Check out this recipe

The important thing wasn’t simply buying more.

It was buying with a plan.

Freezing for a Small Household

For a household of one or two, preservation has to be practical.

There’s not much point in freezing a giant package if you’re only going to use a cup or two at a time. This week was about portioning food for the meals we actually cook, reducing waste, and making the freezer a useful part of the kitchen rather than a place where food disappears until nobody remembers what it is.

Why Freezing Might Be the Best Preservation Method for a Small Household
Read the Article!
The September Freezer: What to Put Back When Produce Is Plentiful
Read the Article!
Chicken & Vegetable Pot Pie Skillet
There are nights when you want chicken pot pie, but you don't necessarily want to make an entire pie.
Check out this recipe
Put a Little Back: Green Beans for Future Dinners
Read the Article!
Freezer Inventory: Know What You Put Back
Read the Article!
Harvest Chicken & Green Bean Rice Bowls
A portion of frozen green beans, some cooked chicken, rice, and a handful of pantry staples come together in a warm, satisfying bowl.
Check out this recipe
Freezer Clean-Out Vegetable Soup
This Freezer Clean-Out Vegetable Soup is exactly the kind of meal I want waiting at the end of a week like this.
Check out this recipe

A little corn.

A few portions of cooked chicken.

Some vegetables.

A meal or two tucked away for a busy day.

Those small additions add up.

The Pantry Gets Bigger

The next step was looking beyond the freezer.

Dehydrating, pantry building, meal starters, and thoughtful storage all give us another way to take advantage of today’s harvest.

Building a Pantry One Jar at a Time
Start small and build a useful pantry without filling every available shelf.
Read the Article!
Dehydrating for Real Life: Turning the Harvest into Useful Ingredients
Look at dehydrating as a way to create practical, recipe-ready ingredients rather than simply preserving food for storage.
Read the Article!
Rustic Harvest Chicken & Rice
Put those dehydrated vegetables to work in a simple, satisfying meal.
Check out this recipe
Put a Little Back: Dehydrated Vegetables
Read the Article!
How to Make Your Dehydrated Food Work Like Ingredients
Read the Article!
Harvest Vegetable & Lentil Soup
Turn that little pantry starter into a warm, practical meal.
Check out this recipe
Pork & Cabbage Rustic Bowl
Use simple ingredients to create another small-batch meal without needing a refrigerator full of leftovers.
Check out this recipe

The idea is simple:

Don’t just preserve ingredients. Preserve possibilities.

A jar of dried vegetables isn’t just a jar of dried vegetables. It’s something that can become part of a soup, skillet, rice bowl, or another meal down the road.

That’s where preservation starts to become meal planning.

Putting Things Back

And now we come to the final chapter.

This week we’ve moved into home canning — beginning with tomatoes and water-bath canning, then moving into pressure canning and the Chicken Meal Starter.

Weekend Suppers: Simple Skillet Meals for Fall
Read the Article!
Why Tomatoes Need Special Attention When Canning
Read the Article!
Canning Tomatoes: Your First Water-Bath Project
Read the Article!
What Can I Do With Those Canned Tomatoes?
Read the Article!
Water Bath or Pressure Canner? Knowing Which One to Use
Read the Article!
Chicken Meal Starter: Putting a Future Supper in the Pantry
Read the Article!

This is where all the pieces we’ve been talking about come together.

We’re not preserving food simply because we can.

We’re preserving it because we have a plan for using it.

What September Really Taught Us

There are plenty of ways to preserve food.

Freezing.

Dehydrating.

Water-bath canning.

Pressure canning.

But the method isn’t really the most important part.

The important part is asking:

Will this make my future meals easier?

Will I actually use it?

Is it stored in an amount that makes sense for my household?

Can I find it when I need it?

Does it save me money, reduce waste, or give me something useful when I don’t feel like starting dinner completely from scratch?

Those are the questions that turn preservation into practical kitchen planning.

From Today’s Harvest to Tomorrow’s Supper

When we started September, the harvest was the focus.

By the end of the month, we’re looking at something different.

We’re looking at future meals.

A bag of frozen corn can become part of a quick skillet supper.

A container of cooked chicken can become soup, a rice bowl, or a wrap.

A jar of dried vegetables can become part of a meal starter.

A jar of home-canned tomatoes can become sauce, soup, or a skillet dinner.

And a jar of Chicken Meal Starter is already halfway to a future supper.

That’s the payoff.

We didn’t put all this food back just to fill jars, freezer bags, and pantry shelves.

We put it back so that one day, when it’s time to make supper, some of the work has already been done.

Looking Ahead to October

And that brings us right to next month.

September has been about putting food back.

October is going to be about using what we’ve put back.

Our October theme is:

Good Meals Begin Before You Start Cooking

Because sometimes the easiest supper starts long before you turn on the stove.

It starts with having the right ingredients.

It starts with knowing what’s in the pantry.

It starts with a few portions in the freezer.

It starts with a jar on the shelf that can become dinner.

September taught us how to put a little something back. October is going to show us what we can do with it.

And I think that’s a pretty good place to end the harvest season.

Posted in Preservation

Chicken Meal Starter: Putting a Future Supper in the Pantry

Posted on by simplegoodfood

Yesterday we talked about the difference between water-bath and pressure canning.

Today we’re going to put that knowledge to work.

We’re pressure canning chicken.

But this isn’t just about putting chicken into jars.

The idea behind this particular project is something I really love about preserving food:

What if one afternoon of cooking could give you several future meal starters?

That’s exactly what I was after with this Chicken Meal Starter.

What Is a Chicken Meal Starter?

Think of it as a head start on supper.

Instead of opening a jar and having a complete finished meal, you’re opening a jar containing the makings of one.

Chicken.

Vegetables.

Broth.

Seasoning.

The contents can then become soup, a skillet meal, a casserole, a rice bowl, or something else entirely.

The jar doesn’t dictate the final meal.

It gives you somewhere to start.

And for someone cooking for one or two, that can be incredibly useful.

Why Make a Meal Starter?

There are plenty of ways to preserve chicken.

You can can plain chicken and use it in whatever recipe you want later.

You can freeze cooked chicken.

You can dehydrate chicken.

But I like the idea of a meal starter because some of the thinking and preparation has already happened.

The chicken is cooked and preserved.

The vegetables are there.

The broth is there.

When I need supper later, I’m not starting from scratch.

That’s the kind of pantry convenience I’m interested in.

Not convenience food.

Convenient real food.

My Chicken Canning Day

This wasn’t a theoretical canning exercise.

I actually made this batch.

And I learned something about my pressure canner in the process.

I knew it was a good-sized canner, but I hadn’t realized just how many half-pint jars it could hold until I started loading it.

Twelve half-pint jars.

Not eight.

Twelve.

That gave me room to do a little experimenting with the batch.

I ended up with:

  • 8 jars of Chicken Meal Starter
  • 2 jars of extra vegetables and broth
  • 2 jars of broth

That’s twelve jars of future possibilities from one canning session.

And honestly, discovering that my canner could hold twelve half-pints was a pretty nice surprise.

What Went Into the Meal Starter?

The basic idea was simple:

  • Chicken
  • Vegetables
  • Broth
  • Seasonings

The ingredients were prepared according to the tested canning procedure being used for the batch.

The important thing here is that the canning procedure comes first.

This isn’t the place to start changing ingredients, adding extra vegetables, changing the jar size, or deciding that a cooking recipe can simply be converted into a canning recipe.

When you’re preparing food for shelf-stable storage, the tested procedure is part of the recipe.

A Very Important Canning Note

This is where I want to slow down for a minute.

Don’t use this post as a pressure-canning procedure by itself.

Chicken is a low-acid food and must be pressure canned using a current, tested procedure.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation’s tested directions for canning poultry are here:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can/meat-poultry-game

The USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning is another reliable reference:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/resources/category/usda-guide

Use the tested processing instructions for the specific chicken preparation you’re making, including the correct jar size, processing time, pressure, headspace, and altitude adjustment.

Don’t substitute a cooking time for a canning time.

Those are two very different things.

Why Half-Pints?

I chose half-pint jars because I’m cooking for one or two.

A quart jar of chicken might be perfectly reasonable for a large family.

For me?

That’s a lot of chicken to use at once.

Half-pints give me much smaller portions and make it easier to open only what I need.

That’s one of the recurring themes in my kitchen:

Preserve food in portions that make sense for the people you’re actually feeding.

What Can You Do With a Jar?

This is where the Chicken Meal Starter gets interesting.

A jar can become the beginning of several different meals.

🍚 Chicken & Rice Bowl

Add cooked rice and whatever fresh or frozen vegetables you have available.

A little seasoning or sauce can take it in an entirely different direction.

🍲 Chicken Soup

Add the contents of the jar to a saucepan with additional broth or vegetables as needed.

Add noodles, rice, potatoes, or another soup ingredient.

Suddenly, dinner is soup.

🥔 Chicken & Potato Skillet

Add the chicken mixture to a skillet with cooked or partially cooked potatoes.

Brown everything together and you’ve got a completely different meal from the same pantry starter.

🥣 Chicken Vegetable Bowl

Serve the chicken and vegetables over rice, mashed potatoes, or another grain.

Add a little gravy or sauce if you like.

🥧 Chicken Pot Pie Filling

The starter can provide the foundation for a small chicken pot-pie-style meal when combined with additional vegetables and a suitable topping.

And this is exactly why I like the word starter.

The jar isn’t trying to be everything.

It’s giving you a head start.

Those Extra Jars Have a Purpose, Too

Remember those two jars of extra vegetables and broth?

And the two jars of broth?

They’re not mistakes.

They’re pantry building blocks.

The vegetable-and-broth jars can become the beginning of soup or a sauce.

The broth can become cooking liquid for rice, potatoes, soup, or another meal.

Sometimes the most useful thing you can preserve is an ingredient that makes the next meal easier.

Stretch Every Grocery Dollar

This is where the economics of preservation get interesting.

When you buy ingredients and use them for several future meals, you’re not simply preserving food.

You’re preserving future convenience.

The chicken that went into these jars will eventually become several different meals.

The vegetables can be stretched into soups, bowls, and skillet meals.

The broth can replace purchased stock later.

And the work happened once.

That’s a pretty good return on a canning afternoon.

Kitchen Confidence

If pressure canning still sounds intimidating, I understand.

There’s more equipment involved than with a boiling-water canner.

There’s more to pay attention to.

And when you’re dealing with meat, there’s no room for guessing.

But there’s also something very satisfying about learning how to preserve a food that would otherwise need refrigerator or freezer space.

Once you understand why pressure canning is required, the equipment and procedure start to make more sense.

And once you have those first jars sitting on the shelf?

Well…

That’s when the fun begins.

Cooking for One or Two

This is really where the Chicken Meal Starter earns its place in my pantry.

I’m not interested in opening a giant jar and figuring out how to use three days’ worth of chicken.

I want to be able to open a small jar, add a couple of ingredients, and make supper.

That’s the beauty of small-batch preservation.

You don’t have to preserve like a family of six when you’re feeding two people.

Preserve according to the way you actually eat.

What’s Next?

This is where I’m going to let the canning series breathe a little.

We’ve talked about tomatoes.

We’ve learned why acidity matters.

We’ve used a boiling-water canner.

We’ve talked about pressure canning.

And now we’ve put chicken meal starters into the pantry.

But those jars aren’t the end of the story.

They’re the beginning.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be bringing some of those jars back out of the pantry and showing you what I actually do with them.

Because there’s no point in putting food back if it just sits on a shelf forever.

Today’s preserved food is tomorrow’s supper.

And that’s the whole idea behind Putting Things Back.

A Note About the Canning Procedure

The Chicken Meal Starter described here is based on my own canning project, but this post is not intended to replace a tested pressure-canning recipe or procedure.

For current tested guidance on canning poultry:

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Meat, Poultry & Game

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can/meat-poultry-game

USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

https://nchfp.uga.edu/resources/category/usda-guide

Always follow the tested procedure for the food being canned, including processing time, pressure, jar size, headspace, and altitude adjustments.

Posted in Preservation

Water Bath or Pressure Canner? Knowing Which One to Use

Posted on by simplegoodfood

We’ve spent the first part of this week talking about tomatoes.

We’ve talked about acidity, why tomatoes need added acid when they’re canned, and how to process them safely in a boiling-water canner.

Today, we’re going to make a change.

Because tomorrow, we’re moving from tomatoes to chicken.

And that means we’re moving from water-bath canning to pressure canning.

If you’re new to home canning, this is one of the most important distinctions to understand:

The food determines the processing method.

Not the size of your kitchen.

Not which canner happens to be sitting in your cupboard.

And definitely not what your grandmother’s recipe card says.

Let’s look at why.

Water-Bath Canning: For Acid Foods

A boiling-water canner works by surrounding the jars with boiling water.

At sea level, water boils at 212°F.

That temperature is sufficient for safely processing properly acidified high-acid foods when you follow a tested recipe and the appropriate processing time.

Foods commonly processed this way include:

  • Fruits
  • Pickles
  • Jams and jellies
  • Fruit spreads
  • Properly acidified tomatoes and tomato products

That’s why we started this week with tomatoes.

They can be safely processed using a boiling-water canner when the tested recipe’s acidification and processing instructions are followed.

Pressure Canning: For Low-Acid Foods

Now let’s talk about chicken.

Meat and poultry are low-acid foods.

And boiling water isn’t hot enough to safely process low-acid foods for shelf-stable storage.

That’s where pressure canning comes in.

A pressure canner allows the temperature inside the canner to rise above the boiling point of water.

That higher temperature is necessary to destroy microorganisms of concern in low-acid foods when the food is processed according to a tested pressure-canning procedure.

That’s why you don’t take a water-bath recipe and simply put it in a pressure canner.

The pressure canner isn’t a magic safety button.

The recipe still needs to be tested for that particular food, preparation, jar size, processing time, and pressure.

So Which Canner Should You Buy?

Here’s where things get interesting.

If you’re just starting out and can only afford one canner, I would seriously consider buying a pressure canner.

Why?

Because a pressure canner gives you the ability to safely process low-acid foods such as meat, poultry, and many vegetables.

And it can also be used for boiling-water processing of foods that are appropriate for that method.

That means one piece of equipment can cover both types of processing.

But There’s an Important Catch

You don’t pressure-can an acid food simply because you’re using a pressure canner.

When you’re using the pressure canner as a boiling-water canner, you are not building pressure.

You’re using it as a large boiling-water canner.

That’s something I’ve done myself.

My pressure canner has a rack that keeps the jars up off the bottom of the pot, and because the canner is larger than some of my other pots, I can sometimes fit more jars in it.

For a boiling-water recipe, I use the canner as a boiling-water bath rather than sealing it up and processing under pressure.

The important thing is to follow the tested recipe’s instructions for water level, jar placement, processing time, and any other requirements.

One Canner Doesn’t Mean One Method

This is worth repeating.

A pressure canner can be used for boiling-water processing.

But that does not mean:

“If I put a water-bath recipe under pressure, it’s automatically safe.”

Those are two different processes.

And I learned another lesson the hard way:

Jelly Doesn’t Necessarily Like Pressure

I once tried pressure-processing a jelly recipe.

The result?

It didn’t jell.

I had changed the processing environment from what the recipe was designed for, and the jelly wasn’t happy about it.

That’s a pretty good kitchen lesson:

Equipment can sometimes be versatile. Recipes aren’t necessarily interchangeable.

So if you’re making jelly, use a tested jelly recipe and the processing method specified for that recipe.

If you’re canning chicken, use a tested pressure-canning recipe.

If you’re canning tomatoes, use a tested tomato recipe.

The canner doesn’t replace the recipe.

What About Tomatoes in a Pressure Canner?

Here’s another point that sometimes causes confusion.

Some tested tomato procedures can be processed in a pressure canner.

But that doesn’t mean you can skip the acidification step.

NCHFP’s tomato guidance specifically provides acidification directions for tomatoes regardless of whether they are processed in a boiling-water canner or pressure canner.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/tomato-acidification-directions

So don’t think of pressure canning as a way around tomato acidification.

The method and the acidity are two separate parts of the safety equation.

The Easy Way to Remember It

If you’re trying to decide which method to use, start with the food.

Think Water Bath

High-acid foods

Think:

🍓 Fruit
🍎 Apples
🍇 Jams and jellies
🥒 Pickles
🍅 Properly acidified tomatoes

Think Pressure Canner

Low-acid foods

Think:

🍗 Chicken
🥩 Meat
🌽 Many vegetables
🥣 Some soups and combination foods

There are exceptions and special cases, which is why we use tested recipes rather than relying on a simple list.

But this is a good starting point.

Don’t Guess With Combination Foods

This is particularly important when you start getting creative.

Suppose you want to make a jar containing:

  • Chicken
  • Rice
  • Vegetables
  • Broth
  • Seasonings

Sounds like dinner, right?

It does.

But you can’t simply decide how long to pressure-can that jar based on how long it takes to cook those ingredients on the stove.

Different ingredients heat differently.

The density of the food matters.

The jar size matters.

The preparation matters.

The processing time and pressure matter.

That’s why tested recipes are so important for combination foods.

And that’s exactly where we’re headed tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Chicken Meal Starter

Tomorrow I’ll show you the Chicken Meal Starter I put together for my own pantry.

This isn’t just a theoretical recipe.

I actually made these jars.

My canner holds 12 half-pint jars, and I filled all twelve during the batch:

  • 8 jars with the Chicken Meal Starter
  • 2 jars with extra vegetables and broth
  • 2 jars with broth

That’s a lot of future meals sitting on one shelf.

And those jars are going to give us something even more valuable than a canning tutorial:

a real example of how a preserved food can become the starting point for future meals.

Stretch Every Grocery Dollar

This is where pressure canning starts to make sense beyond simply learning another preservation technique.

Chicken can be expensive.

But when you can preserve a larger quantity safely, you can turn one cooking session into multiple future meal starters.

That’s the same philosophy we’ve been talking about all month:

Buy when you can. Preserve when it makes sense. Use it later.

The goal isn’t to have the biggest pantry.

The goal is to have a pantry that works for you.

Kitchen Confidence

If you’ve been intimidated by pressure canning, don’t let the equipment make the whole process seem mysterious.

Understand the basic rule first:

High-acid foods can generally be processed in a boiling-water canner. Low-acid foods require pressure canning.

Then learn the tested recipe.

Then learn your equipment.

You don’t need to memorize every canning rule before you begin.

You just need to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing — and follow the tested procedure.

Tomorrow, we’ll put that knowledge to work.

And we’ll put some chicken in the pantry. 🍗

Reliable Canning Resources

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Ensuring Safe Canned Foods

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/general-information/ensuring-safe-canned-foods

NCHFP — Canning Tomatoes: Introduction

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/canning-tomatoes-introduction

NCHFP — Tomato Acidification Directions

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/tomato-acidification-directions

USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

https://nchfp.uga.edu/resources/category/usda-guide

For pressure-canning meat and poultry, always use a current, tested procedure rather than adapting a cooking recipe for canning.

Posted in Preservation

What Can I Do With Those Canned Tomatoes?

Posted on by simplegoodfood

So you’ve canned some tomatoes.

They’re sitting on the pantry shelf, looking all neat and pretty, and you’re feeling pretty good about having put some of the harvest away.

Now comes the important question:

What are you going to do with them?

Because as much as I enjoy looking at a shelf full of home-canned food, the real reason I preserve food is so I can use it later.

A jar of tomatoes isn’t the end of the process.

It’s the beginning of another meal.

Start With the Simplest Possibility

One of the nicest things about home-canned tomatoes is that they don’t have to become anything complicated.

Open a jar, add them to a skillet with some cooked meat and vegetables, season it to taste, and you’ve already got the beginnings of supper.

That makes canned tomatoes particularly useful for the kind of cooking I do most often:

simple meals for one or two.

You don’t have to open a large commercial can and wonder what you’re going to do with the leftovers.

Open a pint.

Use what you need.

Put the rest in the refrigerator for another meal.

According to USDA guidance, opened high-acid canned foods such as tomato products can generally be refrigerated for 5 to 7 days. For best quality, transfer the leftovers to a glass or plastic storage container rather than leaving them in the opened can.

https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/After-you-open-a-can-how-long-can-you-keep-the-food-in-the-refrigerator

🍝 Turn Them Into Pasta Sauce

A jar of canned tomatoes can become a simple pasta sauce with very little effort.

Sauté a little onion and garlic, add the tomatoes, season them, and let everything simmer until the flavors come together.

You can keep it meatless or add cooked ground meat, sausage, chicken, or another protein.

And you don’t have to make a huge pot.

That’s one of the advantages of having tomatoes preserved in pint-sized portions.

A pint can be just enough to turn a couple of pantry staples into dinner.

A Canning Caution

There’s an important distinction here.

Using your home-canned tomatoes to make dinner is not the same thing as canning a new sauce.

You can improvise your supper.

You cannot safely improvise a shelf-stable canning recipe.

If you decide you want to can tomato sauce, salsa, spaghetti sauce, or another tomato product for the pantry, use a tested recipe designed specifically for that product.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has tested recipes for tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, salsa, crushed tomatoes, and other tomato products.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can

🍲 Add Them to Soup

Canned tomatoes are practically made for soup.

Add them to:

  • Vegetable soup
  • Chicken soup
  • Bean soup
  • Lentil soup
  • Beef soup
  • Italian-style soups
  • Tomato-based stews

And don’t overlook the liquid in the jar.

Depending on how the tomatoes were canned and what you’re making, that tomato juice can become part of the cooking liquid for the meal.

That’s another little way to stretch what you’ve already put away.

🥘 Build a Skillet Meal

This might be my favorite use.

Canned tomatoes are an easy way to turn odds and ends into an actual supper.

Start with:

Protein + vegetables + canned tomatoes + a starch

For example:

  • Chicken + vegetables + tomatoes + rice
  • Sausage + cabbage + tomatoes + potatoes
  • Ground meat + onions + tomatoes + pasta
  • Beans + corn + tomatoes + rice

And suddenly the question isn’t:

“What am I going to do with these leftovers?”

It’s:

“What can I make with what I already have?”

That’s a much nicer question.

🍳 Breakfast Can Use Them, Too

Don’t save those tomatoes exclusively for dinner.

A spoonful or two can be wonderful with eggs.

Try simmering some tomatoes with a little onion and seasoning, then adding eggs.

Or add chopped canned tomatoes to an omelet, breakfast skillet, or breakfast casserole.

You don’t need a complicated recipe.

Sometimes the best use for a jar of preserved food is simply making an ordinary meal a little better.

🥣 Make a Small Batch of Tomato Soup

If you have a pint of tomatoes, you already have a head start on a small batch of tomato soup.

Add the tomatoes to a saucepan with broth, onion, garlic, and your preferred seasonings.

Simmer until everything is tender, then blend if you’d like a smoother soup.

You can add milk, cream, or another ingredient you normally use in tomato soup when you’re actually preparing the meal.

Again, we’re cooking here — not canning.

That’s an important distinction.

You can make your dinner however you like.

The rules change when you’re putting that finished product into a jar for room-temperature storage.

🍕 Use Them as a Pizza or Flatbread Topping

Drain some of the tomatoes and chop them fairly small.

Add them to a flatbread or pizza along with cheese, cooked vegetables, chicken, sausage, or whatever else needs using.

You may not end up with a traditional pizza sauce, but that’s okay.

We’re not trying to make every jar perform the same job.

We’re trying to make the food we’ve preserved useful.

🥪 Don’t Forget Sandwiches and Wraps

A little tomato can add moisture and flavor to a sandwich or wrap.

Try chopped, well-drained tomatoes with:

  • Chicken
  • Turkey
  • Tuna
  • Egg salad
  • Melted cheese
  • Leftover cooked meat

If the tomatoes are particularly juicy, drain them well before adding them to bread.

Otherwise, lunch can get messy in a hurry.

Ask me how I know. 😉

🥣 A Jar Can Become Part of a Bigger Meal

This is probably the most important idea I want to leave you with.

You don’t have to use a whole jar in one recipe.

A pint of tomatoes can become:

  • Part of tonight’s skillet supper
  • The base of tomorrow’s soup
  • A sauce for pasta later in the week
  • An addition to scrambled eggs
  • Part of a casserole

That’s how a pantry starts working for you.

You’re not just storing ingredients.

You’re storing possibilities.

Stretch Every Grocery Dollar

This is where preserving food starts making even more sense to me.

When tomatoes are plentiful and reasonably priced, you have an opportunity.

Instead of thinking only about what you need for tonight’s supper, you can think:

What can I put away for October? November? January?

That jar sitting on the shelf represents a meal you won’t have to buy later.

Maybe it becomes soup.

Maybe it’s part of a casserole.

Maybe it saves a grocery trip when the weather is bad.

Maybe you simply don’t feel like cooking something complicated.

That’s what I mean by Putting Things Back.

Today’s tomatoes become tomorrow’s convenience.

Waste Not, Want Not

And here’s another reason I like preserving tomatoes.

You’re giving good tomatoes a second chance to become something useful rather than letting them sit in the refrigerator until they’re past their prime.

But preservation isn’t an excuse to can questionable food.

Start with sound, good-quality tomatoes. The NCHFP recommends disease-free, preferably vine-ripened, firm tomatoes for canning and specifically says not to can tomatoes from dead or frost-killed vines.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/canning-tomatoes-introduction

Preserve good food. Don’t try to rescue spoiled food.

That’s an important distinction.

Cooking for One or Two

This is where I think home-canned tomatoes really shine.

A pint isn’t an enormous commitment.

You can open one when you need it and build a small meal around it.

And because the tomatoes have already been prepared and preserved, you’ve done some of the work before you even started cooking dinner.

That’s what a well-stocked pantry should do.

It should make your life easier.

The Point Isn’t the Jar

There’s a temptation when you’re learning to preserve food to get focused on the jars.

How many jars did I put up?

How many more can I fill?

How pretty does my pantry shelf look?

And yes…

A full shelf of beautiful jars is pretty satisfying. 😄

But the real measure of success comes later.

Did those jars make your life easier?

Did they help you put a meal on the table?

Did they keep you from running to the grocery store?

Did they allow you to make a good supper from ingredients you already had?

If the answer is yes, then those tomatoes have done their job.

Your Turn: Put a Jar to Work

If you’ve got home-canned tomatoes sitting on your shelf, pick one jar and make something with it this week.

It doesn’t have to be fancy.

Add them to soup.

Make a skillet meal.

Turn them into pasta sauce.

Put them in a breakfast dish.

Or simply open the jar and see what dinner starts to look like.

Then come back and tell me:

What did you make with your tomatoes?

Because putting food back is only half the story.

The other half is bringing it back out when you need it. 🍅

A Note About Canning Tomato Products

This post is about using already-canned tomatoes in everyday cooking.

If you want to preserve a finished tomato sauce, salsa, soup, or other combination for shelf storage, don’t simply use one of these cooking ideas as a canning recipe.

Use a current, research-tested canning recipe specifically designed for that product.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has tested tomato recipes here:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can
Posted in Preservation

Canning Tomatoes: Your First Water-Bath Project

Posted on by simplegoodfood

Yesterday, we talked about why tomatoes need special attention when canning.

Today, we’re going to actually put some tomatoes in jars.

If you’ve never tried water-bath canning before, tomatoes can be a good way to learn the basic process. There are several tested ways to can tomatoes, but we’re starting with one of the simplest:

Whole or Halved Tomatoes Packed in Water.

There isn’t a complicated sauce to make and no long list of ingredients. We’re simply preserving tomatoes so they’ll be ready for another meal later.

And that’s really the heart of Putting Things Back.

Before You Start

For this recipe, use sound, ripe tomatoes that are free from disease, bruises, and other signs of spoilage.

Don’t use tomatoes from dead or frost-killed vines for canning.

You’ll also need:

  • A boiling-water canner with a rack
  • Clean canning jars
  • Two-piece canning lids appropriate for your jars
  • A jar lifter
  • A canning funnel, if you have one
  • A large pot for preparing the tomatoes
  • A clean towel for wiping jar rims

If you’re new to water-bath canning, the National Center for Home Food Preservation has a helpful overview of the equipment and basic process.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can

Ingredients

For the Tomatoes

  • Ripe, firm tomatoes
  • Boiling water, as needed

For Acidification

For each pint jar, use:

  • 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice or
  • ¼ teaspoon citric acid

For each quart jar, use:

  • 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice or
  • ½ teaspoon citric acid

NCHFP also allows 5% acidity vinegar as an alternative, although it notes that vinegar can cause undesirable flavor changes.

For exact current acidification guidance, see:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/tomato-acidification-directions

Important: Use bottled lemon juice rather than freshly squeezed lemon juice when the recipe calls for bottled lemon juice. The acidity of bottled lemon juice is standardized; fresh lemon juice isn’t.

Preparing the Tomatoes

Wash the tomatoes thoroughly under running water.

Remove the cores.

Then dip the tomatoes in boiling water for about 30 to 60 seconds, or until the skins begin to split.

Immediately transfer them to cold water.

Once they’re cool enough to handle, slip off the skins.

You can leave small tomatoes whole or cut larger tomatoes in half.

If you prefer your canned tomatoes peeled and quartered, that’s perfectly fine — but for this particular tested procedure, we’re keeping things simple with whole or halved tomatoes.

Preparing the Jars

Prepare your jars according to current safe canning practices.

Keep the jars hot until you’re ready to fill them.

Put the required amount of acid directly into each hot jar before adding the tomatoes.

That’s an important step.

Don’t assume the tomatoes themselves are acidic enough.

We’re deliberately adding a measured amount of acid to every jar so the finished product has the acidity required by the tested procedure.

Filling the Jars

There are two ways to pack these tomatoes.

Hot Pack

Place the prepared tomatoes in a large saucepan and add enough water to completely cover them.

Bring them to a gentle boil and cook for 5 minutes.

Pack the hot tomatoes into the hot jars.

Then add the hot cooking liquid, leaving ½ inch of headspace.

Raw Pack

You can also pack the prepared raw tomatoes directly into the hot jars.

Add boiling water to cover the tomatoes, again leaving ½ inch of headspace.

Either way, the acid goes into the jar first.

Remove Air Bubbles

Run a bubble remover or a nonmetallic utensil around the inside of the jar to release trapped air.

Add more liquid if necessary to maintain the ½-inch headspace.

Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean, damp cloth.

Place the prepared lid on the jar and apply the ring according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Don’t overtighten.

Into the Water-Bath Canner

Place the filled jars on the rack in your boiling-water canner.

The jars should not sit directly on the bottom of the pot.

Make sure the jars are covered with water according to the canner’s instructions.

Bring the water to a full rolling boil before starting the processing time.

Processing Time

For whole or halved tomatoes packed in water, the current NCHFP processing times in a boiling-water canner are:

Jar Size0–1,000 ft1,001–3,000 ft3,001–6,000 ftAbove 6,000 ft
Pints40 minutes45 minutes50 minutes55 minutes
Quarts45 minutes50 minutes55 minutes60 minutes

These times are from the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s tested procedure:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/whole-or-halved-tomatoes-packed-in-water

Know your elevation. Processing times change with altitude, so don’t automatically use the 0–1,000-foot time if you live at a higher elevation.

Once the processing time is complete, turn off the heat and carefully remove the lid.

Let the jars stand in the canner for about 5 minutes before removing them.

Use a jar lifter to transfer the jars to a towel-covered surface, leaving space between the jars.

Don’t tighten the rings or press the lids.

Let the jars cool undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours.

Check Your Jars

Once the jars have cooled completely, check the seals.

A properly sealed lid should be concave and should not flex when pressed in the center.

If a jar hasn’t sealed, refrigerate it and use the contents promptly, or follow current NCHFP guidance for handling an unsealed jar.

Remove the rings before storing the sealed jars, and wipe the jars clean.

Label them with the contents and date.

Then put them on the pantry shelf and admire your work.

Seriously.

There’s something satisfying about looking at a row of jars and knowing that today’s tomatoes have become tomorrow’s meals.

How Many Tomatoes Do You Need?

This is one of those questions that sounds simple until you start buying tomatoes.

The amount you’ll need depends on the size and type of tomato, how tightly you pack the jars, and whether you’re making whole or halved tomatoes.

Rather than giving you a made-up “X pounds makes exactly X jars” number, I recommend buying or picking a little more than you think you’ll need.

Any tomatoes left over can become tonight’s dinner.

And that’s hardly a hardship.

Kitchen Confidence

If you’re nervous about water-bath canning, notice what we actually did here.

We didn’t need a complicated recipe.

We didn’t need twenty ingredients.

We needed:

good tomatoes + measured acid + clean jars + the correct headspace + the correct processing time.

That’s it.

Well… plus boiling water.

The important thing is that each part of the process has a purpose.

Once you understand that, canning becomes a lot less intimidating.

Stretch Every Grocery Dollar

Canning doesn’t always save money on every single batch.

That’s worth saying.

If you’re buying expensive tomatoes at the grocery store specifically to can them, you may not save much compared with buying canned tomatoes.

But when tomatoes are abundant at a farmers market, roadside stand, garden, or grocery-store sale, preserving them can be a very different calculation.

You’re buying them when they’re available and putting them away for later.

That’s one of the basic ideas behind Putting Things Back:

Buy or harvest food when it’s plentiful, then turn it into future meals.

Waste Not, Want Not

Don’t throw away the tomato scraps simply because you’re canning.

Save the usable bits for another purpose.

Tomato trimmings can go into sauces, soups, or other cooked dishes. And if you have a few tomatoes that aren’t quite right for canning, use them fresh rather than trying to force them into the canning batch.

Canning is about preserving good food.

It’s not about finding a way to preserve everything.

Cooking for One or Two

One of the things I particularly like about canned tomatoes is that they don’t require you to have a large household to make preserving worthwhile.

You can use a single pint in a skillet meal, soup, sauce, casserole, or stew.

And that’s where the real payoff begins.

A jar sitting on the shelf isn’t dinner.

A jar that becomes dinner is.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about exactly that.

What Can You Do With Those Tomatoes?

Once you’ve put tomatoes on the shelf, the next question is obvious:

What are you going to do with them?

Tomorrow, we’ll look at practical ways to turn those jars into meals — because putting food back is only half the story.

The other half is bringing it back out when you need it.

Source for This Recipe

This recipe is adapted from the tested Whole or Halved Tomatoes (packed in water) procedure from the National Center for Home Food Preservation:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/whole-or-halved-tomatoes-packed-in-water

For the general tomato-canning information and acidification requirements:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/canning-tomatoes-introduction

For specific tomato acidification directions:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/tomato-acidification-directions

Always use current tested canning procedures rather than changing ingredients, jar sizes, headspace, or processing times on your own.

Posted in Preservation

Why Tomatoes Need Special Attention When Canning

Posted on by simplegoodfood

Tomatoes seem like they should be one of the easiest foods to preserve.

They grow abundantly in late summer, they’re naturally acidic, and generations of home cooks have been putting tomatoes into jars for years.

So why do tomatoes need special attention when you’re canning them?

Because “acidic” doesn’t always mean acidic enough.

And understanding that little distinction is one of the most important things a beginning home canner can learn.

What Does Acidity Have to Do With Canning?

When we’re talking about home canning, foods are generally divided into two broad groups:

Acid foods have a pH of 4.6 or lower.

Low-acid foods have a pH above 4.6.

That dividing line matters because the microorganisms we’re concerned about in home-canned foods behave differently depending on the acidity of the food.

Low-acid foods require pressure canning because a pressure canner reaches temperatures considerably higher than the boiling point of water. Those higher temperatures are necessary to safely process foods such as meat, poultry, and many vegetables.

Acid foods can generally be processed using a boiling-water canner.

That’s the basic idea.

But then we get to tomatoes.

Aren’t Tomatoes Acidic?

Yes.

Usually.

And that’s where things get interesting.

Tomatoes have traditionally been treated as an acid food for home-canning purposes. But some tomatoes can have a pH above 4.6, which means they aren’t reliably acidic enough to be treated as a safe acid food without additional acidification.

That’s why current USDA/NCHFP recommendations call for adding bottled lemon juice, citric acid, or 5% acidity vinegar when canning plain tomatoes and certain tomato products.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation explains the reasoning and current recommendations here:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/canning-tomatoes-introduction

In other words:

You don’t get to skip the acid just because the tomatoes taste acidic.

Your taste buds aren’t a pH meter.

Want the Exact Acidification Amounts?

NCHFP has a separate page with the current amounts for bottled lemon juice, citric acid, and 5% acidity vinegar for tomatoes.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/tomato-acidification-directions

That’s a page worth bookmarking if you’re going to be canning tomatoes.

Why Does This Matter?

Because we’re not simply trying to make tomatoes taste good in a jar.

We’re trying to make them safe to store at room temperature.

That’s why home-canning recipes aren’t something to casually modify.

The amount of acid, the ingredients, the jar size, the headspace, and the processing method all work together.

A tested canning recipe has already taken those factors into account.

That’s also why you’ll sometimes find older tomato-canning recipes that don’t look quite like today’s recommendations.

Home-canning guidance has changed as researchers have learned more about the natural variation in tomato acidity and about the conditions necessary for safe preservation.

So if you have an old family recipe tucked into a cookbook or handwritten on an index card, treasure it for the memories — but check current tested guidance before using it for shelf-stable canning.

What Is a Water-Bath Canner?

A boiling-water canner is essentially a large pot designed to hold jars while they are covered with boiling water.

The jars sit on a rack rather than directly on the bottom of the pot, allowing hot water to circulate around them.

For properly acidified tomatoes and other appropriate acid foods, boiling-water processing can provide the heat treatment called for by the tested recipe.

NCHFP’s general food-safety information explains the principles behind safe home canning here:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/general-information/ensuring-safe-canned-foods

And this is where water-bath canning becomes a very approachable place to start.

You don’t need a complicated piece of equipment.

You need the right equipment, the right recipe, and a little patience.

What About a Pressure Canner?

A pressure canner is a different tool for a different job.

Pressure canning is necessary for low-acid foods because it allows the food to reach temperatures higher than boiling water can provide.

That’s why we’ll be talking about pressure canning later this week when we move from tomatoes to chicken.

And here’s an important point:

Pressure canning doesn’t automatically make every canning recipe interchangeable with every other recipe.

A tested recipe tells you which processing method to use, how long to process, and at what pressure when pressure canning is called for.

Follow the method that goes with the recipe.

One More Reason Tomatoes Deserve Respect

There’s another thing I want beginning canners to understand.

Tomatoes are forgiving in the kitchen.

Canning tomatoes is not the place to be casual about food-safety rules.

You can change a fresh tomato recipe because you don’t like onions.

You can add a little more garlic to tonight’s tomato sauce.

You can decide you want extra basil in the pot.

But when you’re making a shelf-stable canned product, don’t assume that a change that works perfectly well for cooking will also work for canning.

That’s where tested recipes matter.

The Good News

None of this means tomato canning is difficult.

Quite the opposite.

Once you understand why the acid matters, the process starts making a lot more sense.

And tomatoes are still a wonderful place for a beginning canner to learn about boiling-water canning.

Tomorrow, we’ll move from the why to the how.

I’ll walk you through a tested tomato-canning method, including the preparation, acidification, jar filling, processing, and the little details that make the difference between simply putting tomatoes in a jar and actually preserving them safely.

Because that’s really what Putting Things Back is about.

We’re not just filling jars.

We’re putting food away for another day — safely.

A Few Reliable Canning Resources

If you’re learning to can, these are the sources I’d bookmark rather than relying on a random recipe you happen to find online.

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Canning Tomatoes

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/canning-tomatoes-introduction

This is the NCHFP’s overview of tomato canning, including current guidance on tomato acidity and acidification.

NCHFP — Tomato Acidification Directions

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/tomato-acidification-directions

This page gives the specific acidification directions for tomatoes.

NCHFP — Ensuring Safe Canned Foods

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/general-information/ensuring-safe-canned-foods

This explains the principles behind safe home canning and why the appropriate processing method matters.

USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

https://nchfp.uga.edu/resources/category/usda-guide

The NCHFP hosts the USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning, including information on fruits, vegetables, tomatoes, meats, poultry, jams, jellies, and other home-preserved foods.

For this week’s canning posts, these are the sources I’m using as the safety foundation. When it comes to home canning, tested recipes and current recommendations matter.