Bottling Tomatoes

Bottling up the last of the Irish tomatoes is like bottling up summer. They will taste so sweet in winter when this harvest is just a memory.

For canning or bottling, different tomato varieties give you a different result. The standard salad tomato such as alicante has a flesh that is often crisp, not pulpy, its acidity is welcome. These tomatoes have a lot of seeds which can be removed easily to make the sauce. Bottled alicantes usually result in a can where the sauce is as important as the flesh.

Plum tomatoes are the traditional canning tomato, they don’t have so many seeds, so you can just halve them and scoop out only those seeds you see. Don’t fuss to remove all the seeds, otherwise they’ll fall apart.

A really good marmande is the best type. Cut marmande’s in half width-ways and scoop out the majority of seeds with a teaspoon.

Bottled Tomatoes

6.5kg tomatoes
2 onions
knob of butter
2 bay leaves
salt
fresh basil leaves

Skin the tomatoes by slashing them with a knife and plunging them in boiling water for a couple of seconds. The skin will then peel off easily. Cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the flesh and seeds. Reserve this. Make a sauce with this pulpy extraction. Put a heavy pan on a low heat, add the tomato pulp and the chopped onions. Season and add a knob of butter and the bay leaves. If your tomatoes have very little seeds you will need to add some more of the halved tomatoes (chop them first). Judge your tomato mixture - you will need about two thirds halved tomato pieces and 1 third tomato sauce.  Cook the tomato sauce for about twenty minutes, until very smooth and saucy.

Fill kilner jars or screw top jars with the whole tomato pieces and some basil leaves. Then pour in the sauce, almost to fill. If you are using screw top jars you can fill them whilst the tomato sauce is very hot. Then simply turn them over for a few minutes. When you turn them back the lid should pop slightly, and you know you have a vacuum.

Kilner jars, however, need to be put in a saucepan, and covered with water, and boiled for about half an hour. Test the a seal has formed by carefully unhooking the jar and lifting the lid. If the lid won't come away, the vacuum has formed. If it lifts easily, then you'll just have to fridge the canned tomatoes and use them within about a week. Properly sealed the tomatoes should last you the winter.



Tomato Ketchup

Ketchup:
6kg tomatoes, washed and chopped
4 onions, sliced
2 green peppers, seeded and sliced
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
200g dark brown sugar
284ml malt vinegar
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon dry mustard


Spice Mix:
1 stick cinnamon
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 whole allspice
1 tablespoon cloves
1 teaspoon fennel seeds

Place the tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, sugar, vinegar, salt, paprika and mustard into two very large saucepans, and place, covered on a medium to high heat. When the mixture comes to the boil, stir, turn the heat down a little and simmer for about 45 minutes.

Strain the mixture. A mouli set on fine is a good instrument for this.