Late summer has arrived in the Ozarks along with sacks of tomatoes and peppers. That leaves me doing cold canning.
Then the library obtained a book called “Cold Canning” by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough which I checked out as soon as it was put out on the shelf. It isn’t exactly what I wanted, but I’m glad to read it for new ideas.
What Is Cold Canning?
Regular canning is hot work. It requires a big canner which is a pressure cooker, special jars with lids and rings and lots of time and hot work.
The result is a pantry filled with jars of various vegetables, sauces and more. My problem is how long those jars sit on the shelves as two old people don’t eat that much.
So, I gave up my canner and changed to freezing my vegetables. In other words, I’m doing cold canning.
Doing Tomatoes a New Way
My favorite tomatoes for freezing are Speckled Romans. These red and yellow striped paste tomatoes are indeterminate so the crop comes in a bag or two at a time.
Forget peeling the tomatoes. There’s nutrition in those peels most people throw away. Instead, I dice the tomatoes into a big stainless steel pot and cook them down into a thick soup.
This is strained using a colander. The juice is frozen in quart freezer bags. Then the pulp is pureed and frozen in quart freezer bags. Only two or three cups go into a bag, enough for a meal.
Those Pretty Jars
In “Cold Canning” sauces, condiments, jams and more are frozen in glass jars. The pictures look so pretty. I suppose I could use jars.
However, using bags lets me freeze them flat. This makes lining them up in the freezer easy and saves a lot of space.
The recipes are the attraction in “Cold Canning”. This year I want to try making some salsa and doing cold canning is my preferred method.