Why can? And perhaps more importantly, why is it called canning if it is done using jars? Well, I don't know about the last part, but what I do know is that:
-it's a great way to save all the overflowing produce that seems to flood the garden in the summer (I wish I could can heat for the winter as easily)
-you know what you're eating (gives you another option besides the mysteryadoseoxalide-filled processed foods)
-you're saving money (maybe? after several seasons?)
-you're saving the fossil fuels that would have been used to get your store-bought tomatoes to the processing plant, store, and your home
-it passes down traditions through generations of a family
-it gives you some basic skills that will undoubtedly help you, should the zombie apocalypse arrive
-there are probably some other reasons as well...do you know what they are?
So. With a basket of garden-grown heirloom tomatoes, three bags of farm stand canning tomatoes, and a box of my aunt's cherry tomatoes, we canned eleven jars of whole tomatoes and three jars of stewed tomatoes. That's quart jars. Roughly enough tomatoes to last me until forever.
Since we got started later in the day than originally planned due to a morning power outage, the jars were still piping hot at 10pm. I decided to leave with just the three jars of stewed tomatoes, with plans to get the rest at - let's be honest - Thanksgiving when I will be seeing that side of the family again. Those are the whole tomatoes that we processed with the pressure canning method: that fail-safe, super hot, bacteria-killing powerhouse of a seal. The stewed tomatoes were finished off by simply ladling the boiling mixture into jars hot out of the dishwasher, screwing on the lids, and waiting for that satisfying pop of the seal setting. I had always only ever heard of pressure canning or water bath canning (where sealed jars take to a huge pot like a scalding jacuzzi) - never this non-processed way. Who knew it could be so easy?!
Well, it can't. I was nagged by the light bulb moment of dizzying possibilities in front of me - Sauces! Soups! All without a hot pot for hours on end! I did some research, and this method is called "open kettle" and strongly advised against by all kind of food and safety departments. The idea is that though the jars are hot and the food is hot, there is still that chance that bacteria can live inside an unprocessed jar, including the dreaded botulinum, a deadly bacteria that thrives in such environments.
One side of me argued that my grandmother and aunt had obviously been doing their stewed tomatoes this way for years and no one is worse for the wear. People are too swathed in anti-bacterial ointments and wipes these days! A little dirt won't hurt! But then the other side said, "Botulinum will." So I guess it's out with the three jars of open kettle and on to my cache of pressure-cooked whole tomato jars. Also, you should know that you really need to wait to add sugar to your sauces and any tomato product until after you reopen it, since sugar feeds bacteria and you really don't want to provide any more hospitable of an environment for that sort of thing to go on.
I guess the moral of the story is, learn from those who know, then research it for yourself. And you can always save the open kettle jars for the zombies. Special thanks especially must go out to my aunt and grandmother who spent hours blanching, peeling, coring, smooshing, boiling, and cleaning so that I could learn the tricks of the trade. More than anything, their generosity and love is what I will take away from this memory-making day.
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