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| Most posts I read about freezing tomatoes seem to suggest freezing whole tomatoes, and doing all the prep after thawing. I was thinking about prepping my tomatoes before hand as I would if I were canning them, and I'm wondering if anyone has found this to be a useful method. I was planning on coring, peeling, chopping, and draining the tomatoes, and then freezing them in ice cube trays so I could just pop them into soups and chili. Is there any reason this would be a bad idea? Does blanching them to peel beforehand cause extra flavor loss or anything? My guess is that the reason most people freeze them whole is just because they freeze mainly when they don't have time to do canning.
My goal is to have a product in the end that I can use at a moment's notice, just like one would use a canned product. I'm giving up on canning - every recipe I've tried from my Ball book tastes way too acidic to me. I'm tired of wasting pounds of my best tomatoes on something that I don't want to eat, so I figure I'll freeze and dry. Just wondering if anyone's tried freezing in ice cubes, though. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Either way it will work. No hard rules here. However, yt takes no time to put frozen tomato on a plate and put it in microvave for 1 min. Peel will come off w/o any effort and it will be ready to be chopped/ drained and added to your dish. Not much more time than adding canned tomato. I prefer flavor of frozen tomatoes in a cooked dish (just like fresh) to canned. Olga |
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| Agree that there is no reason you can't do it the way you describe but it is a lot of extra and unnecessary work in my opinion. I would, if I was going to do it that way, freeze them in pre-measured portions rather than as ice cubes. I'm giving up on canning - every recipe I've tried from my Ball book tastes way too acidic to me Don't know how you have been doing them or what you have been using but that is unusual. Does a fresh sliced tomato taste "too acidic" for you? Variety and growing conditions could be contributing factors rather than just the canning process. Dave |
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| I know that in actuality it's not a lot more work to chop them after you thaw them, but I know I'd be more likely to use them if they were already ready to go. I've got three young kids and it sure helps to have something I can just grab and toss in a pot. Perhaps it's a mental advantage over a true time-saver. I guess another advantage to doing the peeling, chopping, draining beforehand would be that the tomatoes will be less watery in the dish (I think), and they would take up less space in the freezer. As far as measuring, I make my own chicken broth and freeze it in cubes, so I'm fairly familiar with how many cubes I need to make a cup, etc... To be honest, I have not tried the plain tomatoes I canned yet. So for all I know, they could be fabulous. However, the tomato sauce recipe I tried (from the Ball book) was too sour for me, and the salsa recipe I tried tasted like spicy pickle relish (the Fiesta Salsa recipe - it used cider vinegar). I also made some pickles that were so vinegary I couldn't even stand to smell them. I'm kind of thinking that maybe I'm just overly sensitive to vinegar, although the sauce I made used bottled lemon juice instead and it was still too sour. To answer your question, yes, I think the tomatoes I grow tend to be on the acidic side, but I like them that way fresh... Anyhow, maybe if I kept trying I could find a recipe I like, but canning takes a lot of time and uses a lot of harvest, to wind up with something I can't stand. So for whatever the reason, I think I'm done with it. |
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| I am actually with you on this. I don't do vegetable canning anymore because "approved" recipes are all to acidic for my stomach. Instead I freeze and ferment/refrigirate depending on vegetable. Olga |
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- Posted by joy_unspeakable 7NC (My Page) on Fri, Jun 1, 12 at 19:36
| I agree the ice cube trays may be a bit of a hassle. I much prefer to can my tomatoes, but freeze a good bit also - especially if I only have a small amount of tomatoes at one time and don't want to heat up the kitchen. When I freeze them I do as you're suggesting - I peel, chop, etc, so they are ready to go. I pretty much prepare them the same way I would to can them - then I put them in pint freezer containers or jelly size containers. When ready to use, I just run the container under hot water and pop the tomatoes out. Works great. |
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| Well, I went ahead and gave it a go this afternoon. I put them in ice cube trays - I'll pop them out tomorrow and stick the cubes in a freezer bag. I guess it was more of a hassle to put the tomatoes in the trays than I thought it would be, since they don't just pour in like stock would. There's something about the aesthetics of the cubes I like, though. They're nice and modular... I'll probably stick with it - I freeze lots of things in ice cube form. Thanks for everyone's thoughts! I'm sure I'll be doing more shortly! |
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| You might try using pint freezer cartons and filling them half full, freezing, and then popping out the frozen tomatoes and putting them in plastic bags. I believe it would be easier than the ice cube trays. It would take a little longer to thaw out than the ice cube size but might be worth a try. |
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