Patti's Place: Freezing Fresh Tomatoes

Freezing Tomatoes

Canning tomatoes is my preferred way of preserving them, but when time and tomatoes are limited, freezing is the way to go for me.

Also, everyone doesn't have a canner, everyone doesn't prefer canning, and just like to put everything in the freezer.

Whatever the reason, here’s a quick guide to freezing your fresh tomatoes.

Wash tomatoes and remove stems.

Heat a large stockpot full of water to boiling.

When water is boiling, carefully place tomatoes in water.

You can keep the heat on or turn it off, it really doesn’t matter. What you’re doing is causing the inside of the tomato to soften, which pulls it away from the skin. The skin should begin to split. This is when they’re ready to remove from the water. This could happen in 30 seconds or take a bit longer.

Have a dishpan or your sink filled with ice water. This is simply to cool the tomatoes enough for you to handle with your hands without burning yourself.

I take a slotted spoon and just lift each one out as they begin to split. Truthfully, sometimes the skins refuse to split; you can just take them out anyway. I’ll show you how to take care of that a few sentences down.

After the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, remove from cold water into a large bowl or other container. If the skins have split, just start at a split place and start removing. If they refused to cooperate, just take the tip of a sharp knife and gently pierce the skin at the bottom of the tomato.

You never want to peel from the top; it makes it much harder to remove the skin. Always start from the bottom if possible, then just pull the skin up toward the top and if necessary, cut the top part off with your knife.

Discard the skins, cores and other bad parts(if you have chickens, they’ll be happy with this as a treat.)

You’ll have a great big bowl of peeled tomatoes and juice at this point. Add salt at this point if desired.

I put mine up in quart bags; you may want to use pints. Whichever size you use, get the appropriate jar to measure your tomatoes and juice with.

Label your bags with contents and date. There’s no picture, because I forgot to label mine. I’ll have to wait until they’re frozen and then label them.

Using a canning funnel and a cup to dip with, fill your jar with a good mixture of tomatoes and juice.