The best way to pickle tomatoes for the winter

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

This article describes a recipe for pickling tomatoes for the winter - delicious chopped tomatoes with butter, with a step-by-step description of the cooking technology. Methods for selecting suitable varieties of tomatoes for preservation are also presented, as well as available technological methods for sterilizing jars at home are described. After reading this article, you will certainly want to use this recipe and show off your culinary skills to your loved ones.

How to make delicious canned tomatoes

The success of high-quality conservation, first of all, depends on the quality of the selected tomatoes. Therefore, it is best to start thinking about the upcoming preparations for the winter in the spring, when it comes time to choose seeds, plant seedlings, and take care of the growing nightshade.

How to choose suitable tomato varieties for pickling?

Naturally, not all housewives have a household plot and the ability to grow tomatoeson one's own. In this case, I can give some advice on choosing tomatoes that are ideal for conservation. So, don't buy them from the store as they are coated with a good layer of food grade wax for long term storage. And even in the season itself, there is a risk of running into tomatoes that have ripened in winter. Thus, for fresh and fragrant tomatoes, you should go to the market.

First of all, you should look at all the laid out samples and choose the ones you like the most. It should be noted that genetics does not stand still, so sellers offer a huge variety of varieties, colors and shapes. However, it should be understood that in conservation they can behave extremely unpredictably, swell, explode, and all your efforts will be in vain. Therefore, it is best to choose classic red tomatoes with a round or slightly oblong shape. It is very important that the fruit exudes a natural aroma, in other words, it smells like tomatoes, and not chemicals and rot. So, the sample has been chosen, and now it’s worth asking the seller to cut or break the vegetable, since not only the external examination of the tomato is important, but also its internal content.

In the case when there is obviously too much juice released, and large seed chambers are clearly visible, the tomato is poorly suitable for preservation as a whole. These will go very well for the preparation of various ketchups, lecho and other preparations that require the presence of natural tomato juice. But if the pulp is thick, fleshy, without chambers and with a small amount of juice, you can safelytake the required number of such tomatoes and go home as soon as possible, preserve them according to the recipes, the description of which will be below.

Subtleties of sterilizing jars

Before proceeding directly to the description of the recipes themselves, I would like to dwell on one more, no less significant moment in the process of preparations - sterilization. The fact is that most hostesses are used to sterilizing the “grandmother's” way - a special lid with a slot for the neck of the jar is put on the pan, they boil there one by one for 10 or even more minutes.

This process is very energy-intensive, given that we usually sterilize not one, but 7-10 pieces, because what to breed is all because of a tomato jar. And also because the blanks are given the summer months, and twisting, boiling a bunch of cans in the heat is fraught with consequences, for example, overheating, heat stroke. Therefore, now that there are many helpers in the kitchen, you can use them, thereby reducing the time for the whole process.

2 ways of modern sterilization

So, method 1. Microwave. A little boiled water (about 3-4 cm) is poured into jars thoroughly washed and defatted with soda, and then they spin there for 5 minutes at full power. Ready. We take out the jars, pour out the water, let it dry. The option is good when not many cans of small volume are required - 0.5 l or 0.65 l.

Of course, liter, and even more so three-liter ones cannot be pushed there, so you can safely choose option 2 - the oven.

We put fat-free and thoroughly rinsed containers of the required caliber directly into the cold, turn it on to 120 degrees and boldly go about our business for 20-25 minutes. After that, we carefully take out with potholders or mittens, whatever comes to hand, and the jars are ready.

The best way to pickle tomatoes

Actually, to prepare a delicious preparation, we need: ripe fresh fragrant tomatoes, onions. For brine: for 1 liter of water, take 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of s alt, 2 bay leaves, 8 black peppercorns. Our preservatives will be 9% vinegar and unrefined vegetable oil.

Cutting tomatoes

Tomatoes should be thoroughly washed and allowed to dry at natural room temperature. You should not wipe them with a towel, as you can leave unfavorable flora on the skin, which in the future can lead to swelling of the entire jar, as well as deform them. Next, cut the tomatoes into slices. If the fruit is large, then about 8 parts, medium enough for 4-6. Here, see for yourself, the main thing is that the slice fits comfortably in your mouth and does not cause discomfort. Do an experiment, why not? The onion, in turn, should be cut into rings, about 0.5-0.7 cm thick.

Put in jars

Before proceeding to the actual method of pickling tomatoes, they should be arranged in jars. In jars well sterilized in one of three ways, compactly layprepared, pre-cut vegetables. Attention: tamping them in any case is impossible! So they secrete juice and lose their shape. Remember your favorite Tetris game and just compactly put a slice to a slice, filling the jar so that there is room for the onion, which is placed in rings on top of the tomatoes in the amount of 3-4 rings. It should be noted that onions preserved in this way are no less tasty than the tomatoes themselves. And everyone will want to snatch a large part for themselves, crunch and enjoy its delicate taste.

So, the jars are full. We cover them with sterilized lids so that microbes flying in the air do not penetrate, and set aside. It's time to prepare the brine.

Preparing pickle

Brine must be done with the expectation of all banks. Usually 300-350 ml of brine is prepared per liter container. Considering that one batch consists of approximately 6 such cans, it will be enough to cook 2 liters. Pour water into a saucepan, bring to a boil and put all the ingredients described above there, not forgetting that the amount of food taken is calculated per liter, respectively, it is worth increasing their amount if cooking by two or three liters. The brine should be boiled for 5-7 minutes so that the pepper and lavrushka give their flavors into it.

Carefully pour the finished brine into jars, filling them so that the onion disappears under water, but there is room for vinegar and oil, that is, about a little higher than the shoulders. Black peppercorns from brine can be decomposed one or two things in each jar for spiciness, andhere you should not put lavrushka, because it interrupts the aroma of tomatoes. After the brine is poured, add 1 tablespoon of 9% vinegar, and on top we create a kind of cork from the oil. Vegetable oil should be poured so much that the oil stain covers the entire surface of the jar, but you should not overdo it. Everything should be in moderation.

Final steps

The final stage of preparation is the sterilization of jars with the finished product. This will take a little longer, since it is unlikely that you will be able to find a pot that would fit all the jars, so they should be sterilized in parts, three or four pieces.

So, put containers with tomatoes and onions in a large saucepan, and then carefully, up to the shoulders, pour warm, almost hot, water. Why hot? Because we remember that we just poured hot liquid inside the jar, and if you pour cold liquid from the outside, the jars can simply burst and goodbye efforts. This is physics as it is. So, pouring water into the pan, turn on the stove, bring the water to a boil and boil for 5-6 minutes.

It is worth remembering that when boiling, droplets of oil may splash out of the cans. There is nothing terrible in this, if you have not filled it to the brim. But you should not leave too much space either, because the fermentation process can begin in the air voids, and the jar will eventually swell and explode.

After the sterilization of the jars is completed, roll them up. Some people prefer screw caps. It is much easier to open them, and they are not tight at all.not inferior to ordinary tin. We wipe the outside of the jars with clean napkins, as they can be a little greasy after the oil has boiled into the pan, and then wrap them in a warm blanket. So they will infuse and become even tastier.

Enjoy the yummy

So, as we found out, s alting tomatoes is a simple matter, and as soon as the jars have cooled down, they should be removed in a dark, cool place. Since the preservation process is still going on for some time after cooking, you should not rush to open them to feast on them. Here the exposure is important, about 2-3 months. But then you can proudly treat your relatives and friends with such an incredible yummy, serving tomatoes, for example, with potatoes. Guests will certainly want to come to you again and ask: are there any more such delicious tomatoes?!