Wash the tomatoes. Have ready a kettle of boiling water. Put the tomatoes in a wire basket, or lay them on a piece of cheesecloth or a towel, twist the ends together to form a sack, and let this down into the kettle. It is a good plan to slip a rubber band round the neck of this sack to hold the ends in place. The ends should be long enough to stand up out of the water and so avoid danger of burning the fingers when removing the product.
Have the water boiling hard. Lower the tomatoes into the boiling water. This is called scalding the tomatoes. We scald the tomatoes to loosen the skin. If the tomatoes are very ripe, one minute scalding will be sufficient. The average length of time for tomatoes, just perfect for canning, is one and a half minutes. Do not leave the tomatoes in the hot water until the skins break, as this gives them a fuzzy appearance.
The scalding kettle always should be covered, to keep in all the heat possible. Begin to time from the minute the product is immersed in the boiling water. If you wait until the water comes back to a boil, you will scald the product too long and have mushy tomatoes.
Lift the tomatoes out of the hot water and plunge them immediately into cold water, or hold them under the cold-water faucet. The cold-dip makes them easier to handle, separates the skin from the pulp, firms the texture, and coagulates the coloring matter so it stays near the surface, giving them a rich, red color. Then the shock due to the sudden change from hot to cold and back to hot again seems to help kill the spores. Do not let the product stand in the cold-dip. The water becomes lukewarm, softens the product and allows bacteria to develop.
Take the tomato in the left hand and with a sharp knife cut out the core. Be careful not to cut into the fleshy portion or seed cells, for this will scatter the seeds and pulp through the liquid, injuring the appearance of the product. Cut out the core before removing the skin, for the skin will protect the pulp and there will be less danger of breaking the tomato. If the tomatoes are ripe and have been scalded properly, the skin can be slipped off with the fingers.
The jars, rubbers and tops should be ready. Glass jars should be hot, so there will be no danger of breakage in setting them in the hot water, and so they will not cool the water in the cooker below the boiling point.
Pack the tomatoes whole, pressing and shaking them well down together, but not using force enough to crush them.
Now we come to a point where tomatoes are different from most vegetables. Beans, carrots, peas, and so on, have hot water added to them. But as a large part of the tomato is water, no more is needed. Another exception where no water is needed is with the "greens family." So with tomatoes we add no water, but add one teaspoonful of salt and one teaspoonful of sugar, just for seasoning, to every quart jar. I think that tomatoes always are improved by the addition of a little sugar, but this is not necessary and can be omitted, as also can be the salt.
The salt in canning does not act as a preservative, but as seasoning; so if for any reason you forget the salt, do not be alarmed. Your products will keep perfectly without the salt.
THE WAY TO SEAL