T.T.: Just Call Me the Reduction Evangelist

Much like it took me years to come up with the bright idea of seriously reducing my stock before canning it, it took me until, um, now to realize I could do the same thing with tomatoes.

I have canned a lot of tomatoes. Gallons upon gallons. And just this summer did I think to reduce them to about half their volume before canning them. Just like with stock, there's really no need to have all that liquid in the tomatoes. Almost half the jar will be a watery liquid when tomatoes are canned. This means more jars needed to can the tomatoes, and that means more lids. Which are getting harder to find, and more expensive when I do find them.

What I've been doing this summer is sticking a pan of halved tomatoes with nothing but salt into the oven when it's on for something else and baking them uncovered until the tomatoes have reduced by about half. The amount of time this takes depends on how hot the oven is. 

Before . . .

And after. Water, begone!

After the liquid is mostly gone, I puree the tomatoes, most often with my immersion blender. A regular blender or a food processor work, too. Then I can it, using the Ball Blue Book times for tomato puree. I usually end up with four pints, which I can juuust fit covered with water in my largest pot without having to mess around with the giant water bath canner.

This is much easier than prepping and stuffing seven quart jars full of whole tomatoes, and anyway, I never want whole tomatoes in anything I cook. I always end up mashing them when I cook with them. 

One of the greatest benefits to this is not peeling. I really, really dislike peeling tomatoes. Making a puree that includes the skins means no peeling, but also no curled up bits of skin in the food. Bonus.

What do you think I'll discover I should be reducing next? Probably something I should have been reducing all along.

I may be slow, but I get there in the end.