Canning Vs. Freezing? What’s the Easiest Way to Preserve Your Garden Tomatoes

There are few ingredients as versatile as the tomato. Even a few tomatoes can open up a world of possible dishes for me when rummaging through even the most ransacked pantry and refrigerator in the dead of winter.

Sure, there are tomatoes available at the supermarket year round. But often these are overly-refrigerated, tasteless, mealy globes that taste more like pizza napkins than something you would use to make a fresh pizza sauce. Not to mention, winter tomatoes come in at double or even triple the asking price of their tastier late summer counterparts.

To combat my near post-apocalyptic fear of ever having to cook in a tomato-less kitchen, I decided to start growing my own tomatoes several years ago. And without fail, my phobias lead to an overproduction year-in and year-out (my eyes have always been bigger than my stomach, though age seems to have taken upon itself to challenge this maxim).

Usually about the time the first tomato turns into a festering pile of bruised juice on the counter, everyone wandering through the kitchen starts staring at one another wondering who is going to take the first step in preserving the summer’s bounty. Canning could mean several hours in a steamy kitchen over a large boiling cauldron. Not to mention that one has to keep the pH value of canned tomatoes below 4.6 to avoid botulism poisoning. As long as one has enough freezer space, there are other easier, lazier, and cooler ways to preserve your summer tomato harvest.

Canning vs. Freezing: The Benefits of Freezing Tomatoes

By far and away the easiest, simplest, and coolest option for preserving tomatoes is to freeze them. While frozen tomatoes could never be sliced and added to a sandwich (the water in the tomato expands when frozen, irreparably damaging the tomato’s texture), their flavor remains perfect for hearty sauces and stews all winter long. It is also one of the easiest ways to peel a tomato. Thawing the frozen tomato loosens the peel to the point where a finger can easily remove it if so desired.

To freeze your tomatoes, make sure they are fully-ripened (but not overly-ripe) and washed with the stem removed. Simply place the tomatoes in a freezer bag and close. Suck the extra air out of the bag with your mouth or with a straw. They stay good frozen for up to six months.

Canning vs. Freezing: The Benefits of Roasting Tomatoes

One way to preserve some of the texture of the tomatoes is to roast them first. Roasting the tomatoes helps to remove much of the excess water–which would normally expand in the freezer and damage the walls of the fruit. Usually I’ll wait until I am already using the oven before roasting up a few batches in the summer heat. Once they’re started you really don’t need to check on them very often. So you can wait in a cooler room of the house while they roast.

To roast your tomatoes, simply cut the tomatoes in half and toss them in a few tablespoons of olive oil; some fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and marjoram; and a few cloves of sliced garlic. Place the tomatoes cut-side down on a non-aluminum baking tray or baking dish. Be sure to space the tomatoes well so that the moisture can escape. Roast for about two hours on 325 degrees or until the tomatoes are starting to wrinkle. They’ll keep frozen for up to six months.
Sources:

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM638.pdf