Will you be pressure canning or BWB canning? I refuse to use the 85 mins. for BWB canning that some of the liquid ones require.

My personal preference is Crushed Tomatoes with no added liquid. But if you want to add liquid then I guess I'd go with adding tomato juice as best.

Dave

Dave-

I will definitely be PC. I refuse to baby sit a pot for upwards for a hour and half of my life. I was just flipping threw by Ball Home Preserving book taking a peek at the crushed tomatoes.

Thank you for you input!

I second the crushed tomatoes with no added liquid. I tried canning tomatoes whole once with unfavorable results. Happy canning!

I also prefer crushed with no added liquid. Mine are more "diced", but same processing.
I don't want anything to dilute that garden fresh flavor, that's a big part of why I'm preserving in the first place!!

Because I use them in soups or sauces, there's no need for halves/whole tomatoes for me. I'm going to cut them into bite sized pieced anyway. You can fit more tomatoes in a jar if they're cut up too, saving time and money!

Deanna

Thank you very much! Are you familiar with the recipe in the Ball book for crushed tomatoes? If so, how do you think it rates/stakes up?

Which Ball book? Far as I know there is no recipe for Crushed Tomatoes in the BBB. The recipes in the Ball Complete Book (2 of them 1 for PC and 1 for BWB) are the standard NCHFP instructions and are what everyone uses.

Dave

I both water bath and PC tomatoes. I actually prefer water bath because, by the time you vent a PC and so forth, PC takes longer. I use either the juice that comes from the tomatoes naturally or water. I use my canned tomatoes for cooking, and I can't taste the difference between the juice and the water canned.

I don't add liquid. I crush the tomatoes. They make enough liquid of their own. Then I PC them. Once the canner is hot I can do canload after canload quickly.

I second, third, fourth, fifth, the crushed tomatoes. I do Eugenia Bone's method from "Well-Preserved" for crushed tomatoes. So much easier and quicker and they taste soooooooo goooooooood! Who knew canned tomatoes tasted so good?!

Last summer was my first year canning. I did the crushed tomatoes from the NCHFP instructions and they were great. I plan to do it that way again this summer.

Thank you everyone for the responses!! I have decided to crush and can my tomatoes this year, seems like the obvious choice and not such a hassle to do large amounts at a time. Thanks again!!