canning tomato juice

The first thing you need to can tomato juice is a good tomato picker. I have one. Sort of. She's easily distracted.

I bought a food mill on sale this summer. Don't tell hubby that it came from Rural King, he is under the assumption it was a garage sale find. I had been looking without luck. I didn't lie, he assumed. Because I used a food mill, I didn't have to peel the tomatoes. Total time saver. I just cut out the stems and any undesirable spots.

I cooked the tomatoes for a little while. They got all juicy and nice in the pot. It probably took 15 minutes. Then, several tomatoes at a time, I ran them through the food mill.

It was kind of fun. All the flesh mushed into juice and then all the juice ran through to waiting pan. All that was left were the smooshed skins.

And in the waiting pan, I had some delish tomato juice. I brought that back to a boil and then added it to my clean jars. I did about three different batches this past month. In one I added the optional 1 t salt per pint. In the others, I didn't. In two batches, I added 1/4 t lemon juice. I've read that you really don't have to do that though, so I didn't on the last batch.


I processed one batch in the pressure canner at 5 pounds for 10 minutes. I did the other two batches in the hot water bath for 35 minutes.

I haven't opened what was canned, but have tasted the leftover that didn't fit in jars. It was pretty good. I sure hope I don't spend all winter opening jars being disappointed. One thing I didn't do that I should have was to note on the jars which recipe and which canning method was used. If one taste better than the other, I won't know which it was. Live and learn.