This month The Food In Jars Mastery Challenge was hot pack preserving. I decided to make use of my sous vide cooker for my canned herbed tomatoes.

Head straight on to the Recipe For Canned Herbed Tomatoes ♥
Sometimes, coming to the end of your patience levels pays off. I had more than enough of trying to get Pick N Pay to sort out my Smart Shopper card. My email to the national customer services manager after her PA emailed me was short and sweet. I told her that they had 48 hours to sort out my issues otherwise I would shop at their opposition. At the same time I tweeted that I had downloaded the App from the other large supermarket chain. I am not sure what happened but finally, after more than 9 months, the issue was resolved. Dave is getting his vouchers on his Smart Shopper card and the double points are working. We transfer these points to Air Miles and hopefully one day we will have accumulated enough to fly at no cost to the United Kingdom for a holiday.
Today’s inspiration ♥ Recipe For ♥ can be found on Lavender and Lime Share on X
There is a saying that the mother city (Cape Town) is so-called because everything takes 9 months to happen. In this case, it was quite accurate. When I made my bottled guavas Dave suggested I should try to use my sous vide cooker for the canning process. It worked really well, but took much longer than the conventional stove top method. I think it will be more cost-effective to use the sous vide when canning more than one jar at a time. But, I only have 3 so need to preserve less quantity wise, more often time wise. I was really pleased with the end result of these canned herbed tomatoes and cannot wait to share with you what I did with them. If you have an abundance of tomatoes in your garden I can highly recommend this method of preserving which will leave you with plenty to use for a year.
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Canned Herbed Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 15 mls lemon juice
- 5 mls dried basil
- 2.5 mls dried thyme
- 2.5 mls dried parsley
- 2.5 mls dried oregano
- 1.25 mls dried rosemary
- 1.25 mls dried sage
- 1.25 mls dried garlic flakes
- 0.625 mls dried chilli flakes
- 630 g ripe baby tomaotes *
Method
- Add the lemon juice and the herbs to the jar
- Place the tomatoes into a large sauce pan and cover with water
- Bring to the boil over a medium to high temperature
- Reduce the temperature and boil gently for 5 minutes
- Remove the tomatoes from the pan using a slotted spoon
- Peel the skin off if it has lifted
- Pack the tomatoes into the jar, without crushing them, leaving 1.25cm head space
- Pour the cooking water over the tomatoes leaving 1.25cm head space
- Remove any air bubbles, wipe the rim and place the lid on the jar, applying the band to fingertip tight
- Set your sous vide cooker to 82° Celsius and pace the jar into the cooker while it heats up **
- Once the temperature has been reached, leave the jars in the sous vide cooker for 15 minutes
- Remove and leave to cool completely for 24 hours
- Check the seal before storing - Can be stored for up to 1 year in the jar if the lid does not flex
- If it does, you need to refrigerate the contents and use them straight away
Notes
** from cold, my water took over 2 hours to get to this temperature
Inspiration published on Lavender and Lime July 24:
- 2016 – Undercover
- 2015 – Win 1 Set Of Double Tickets To 031 Comedy Riot
- 2014 – Baked Arancini Stuffed With Cheese
- 2012 – Venison Braised In Amarula
- 2010 – Friday’s Food Quiz Number 31
I have never tried canning, Tandy, but this looks like a good recipe to start with.
This was super easy and if I had more bottles I would make more 🙂
I love pickling and canning! What a nice idea-the tomatoes would be very versatile.
I am hoping to be able to grow tomatoes next year if the drought breaks 🙂
I have never tried making my own canned tomatoes. Your recipe sound promising, so I can try making my own. Will let you, when I will try.
Please do!
Canning tomatoes is on my list for this summer and I will be following your wonderful recipe, thanks Tandy!
my pleasure, and I hope it works out perfectly for you 🙂