Oven Canned Tomatos

[plucky]

My mom gave me this tip that she's been using for years, and it's been invaluable so I thought I'd share! To can tomatos, you don't need a pressure or water bath canner. Prepare tomatos, tomato sauce, salsa, or tomato juice as you normally would (with half inch head space), then just put the jars in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes at 250 degrees. When time is up, turn off the oven and let it cool...you'll hear the jar lids popping. I put them on a cookie sheet just in case one overflows, but I've never had this happen.

This method lets you do lots of jars at once, and you don't have to go buy equipment (or drag it all out) to have homegrown tomatos this winter. As far as I know, it's only safe to do this with tomatos.

 

[lesliet]

Will this work with other foods or just tomatoes??

 

[JennsPeeps]

Is it only tomatoes or can you can items with tomatoes as the principal ingredient (like sauce)?

Cool idea!

 

[Nemo]

I'm no expert, but I'd never try this for anything other than something you can can in a simple boiling water bath. Yes, the oven gets up to 250°, but the jars will only get up to boiling, because they have water in them. Until all the water boils out of the jars, they can't get any hotter.

[EDIT] -- It's like the science-class experiment of boiling water in a paper cup over a candle. Until the water boils away, the paper cup won't catch fire because it can't get hot enough.

 

[patandchickens]

Just for what it's worth, and I am NOT telling anyone what to do or not do, just putting this out there as food for thought...

...oven canning is no longer regarded as safe by home-ec types or food scientists, because there is a lot of variation in 'local' temperature in different parts of an oven. Just because your oven thermometer says X degrees that is no guarantee that all parts of all jars are experiencing that temperature. Thus, there is a higher chance of spoilage resulting from insufficient processing.

Ditto with steam canning, btw, for similar reasons.

Only water-bath canning or pressure-canning are currently considered really safe, as being the only *guarantees* of getting all parts of all jars to the right temperature to kill nasty things.

Of course many people have eaten many jars of oven- or steam-canned goods without dying, and the odds of a problem are pretty low, but still.

Just sayin'. Eveyrone can make their own decision.


Pat

 

[plucky]

Tomatos (and mostly tomato products like salsa) are the only thing I feel comfortable doing this way, but I'm not sure if it works or is safe with anything else.

I did 16 pints of salsa and tomato juice yesterday this way.

 

[dacjohns]

Bad idea for a number of reasons. Better check for the latest information on canning.

Also, many varieties of tomatoes do not have enough acid for even water bath canning unless some type of acid is added. When you add the other ingredients for salsa you also change the acid content.