The time has come, the retardee said, to write of many things;
Of Early Girls and Yellow Boys, and whether Oprah really matters. (She doesn't.)
No ships, no kings, no sealing wax either;
Just what to do with bunches of 'Maters that do gather.
Yep, this blog is about tomatoes and one of the highest purposes to which they may be set: the creation of tomato preserves!
It helps if first you start with lots of vine ripened tomatoes, deep red, sweet and juicy, bursting with summer.
Next the 'maters should be gently bathed in cool, clear, water. (Cool, clear, water, water, water...)
Next the clean tomatoes are changed from elegant globes like these;
Into quartered tomatoes which are sugared and left to drain overnight so as to collect as much of the juice as possible.
The juice is placed in a large, thick-bottomed pan to simmer on very low heat for hours and hours until the juice has boiled down into a tomato syrup.
Then the chunks of tomato and thin slices of lemon are added to the tomato syrup and again slowly simmered for hours until the preserves are reduced to a thick syrup state.
The result is a thick preserve with rich tomato taste! Note the deep red color, the color of concentrated sunshine, water, and tomatoes. Mmmm....
My Mother used to make tomato preserves, but not every summer. While the recipe isn't hard, it does require long hours of slow simmering either on the stove top or in an oven, with stirring every 15 minutes or so. It took me three days to make this patch, working mostly evenings after I got home from work.
Now the part you have been waiting for, the recipe.
TOMATO PRESERVES
From the kitchen of Edith Taylor
- 5 pounds (about 11 cups) of ripe, quartered tomatoes.
- 4 pounds of sugar
- 2 medium lemons, sliced thin.
- Scald, peel and quarter the tomatoes.
- Add sugar and let stand overnight.
- Put into a colander and drain off the juice;
- Simmer the juice until it spins a thread when dropped from a spoon like a syrup. Stir frequently to prevent sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan.
- Add sliced lemons, tomatoes, and simmer until thick and clear, again stirring frequently.
- Pour into sterilized jars and seal, or place in airtight freezer cartons.
As an alternative recipe, you may do the following:
- Peel, quarter and drain tomato juice and seeds in a colander.
- Add sugar, the mix should be 50/50 tomatoes and sugar.
- Slice lemons very thin, one lemon per every six cups of tomato/sugar mix.
- Pour into a non-aluminium roasting pan and place in a 350-degree oven.
- Cook down to a preserve consistency, but remember the mix is thin when hot and thickens as it cools so remove from oven early.
- Excess cooking causes loss of red color because you overcooked it and it is starting to burn. So don't do that! Oh yeah, be sure to stir the mix every 15 minutes or so.
If you decide to try making tomatoe preserves, please let me know how they come out. I think I may try making a batch using just yellow tomatoes to see if the resultant preserves might also be yellow.
Grandpa John
