How to Can Tomato Juice

Do you have an abundance of tomatoes? Learn How to Can Tomato Juice so you can use them year-round in your soups, stews, and sauces!

How to Can Tomato Juice

If you are harvesting a bounty of fresh tomatoes from your garden, or even if you find a good sale at the market, you may be trying to figure out what to do with all those tomatoes. Canning tomatoes is a great way to preserve their freshness, and another often overlooked way to make tomato juice!

Tomato juice can be used in soups, stews, or as a base for a homemade pasta sauce. Making and canning tomato juice takes a little bit of effort, but once you taste the robust, fresh flavor of homemade tomato juice, you’ll be glad you made it!

Canning Tomato Juice

Pick tomatoes that are fresh, ripe and firm. You don’t want to use overly ripe tomatoes, because their acid levels may be too low, and unsafe for canning.

For this recipe, I used 12 pounds of mixed Roma tomatoes and red round tomatoes. I extracted enough juice to fill 6 pint-sized jars.

Start by washing, coring and removing any bruised or green spots from the tomatoes. Take a third of the tomatoes and cut them into quarters.

Once the tomatoes are cut, they start to release pectinase enzymes, which will cause the tomato juice to separate. Heating kills the pectinase enzymes, so you want to put heat on the tomatoes as soon as they’re cut. Quickly add the quartered tomatoes to a pot over medium-high heat. Using a clean potato masher, gently crush the tomatoes until they start to break down.

Meanwhile, quarter another third of the tomatoes, and add those to the pot, crushing and stirring as you go. Quarter and add the remaining third of the tomatoes and continue crushing until the tomatoes are broken down.

Reduce heat to medium and allow the tomatoes to simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat. Using a sieve or food mill, separate the juice from the seeds and peels.

Return juice to the pot and bring to a boil. Remove immediately and ladle into sterilized jars, using a sterilized funnel, making sure to leave 1/2″ of headspace. To each jar, add 1 tbsp of bottled lemon juice or 1/2 tsp of citric acid. I also added 1 tsp of salt to each jar for taste, but that is optional.

Wipe the rims of cans with a clean paper towel and top with a sterilized lid and rim and tighten until finger-tight. Fill your water bath canner with water and bring to a boil. Process in water bath canner following the time chart above for your altitude. For a pressure canner, follow the time instructions here. Carefully remove, and allow to sit undisturbed until the jars have properly sealed.

–For more information on how to see if your jars have properly sealed and what to do if they haven’t, check out this post on Testing Jar Seals And Reprocessing Jars (Safe Home Canning)

Please check with your local extension office for any changes on times/temps/high altitude.

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How to Can Tomato Juice

Keyword Canning Recipe, canning tomato juice, fresh tomato juice

Ingredients

• 12 pounds tomatoes I used a mix of roma tomatoes and red round tomatoes
• bottle lemon juice or citric acid
• salt optional

Instructions

1. Start with tomatoes that are fresh, ripe and firm. You don't want to use overly ripe tomatoes, because their acid levels may be too low, and unsafe for canning.
2. Wash, core and remove any bruised or green spots from the tomatoes. Take a third of the tomatoes and cut into quarters.
3. Quickly add the quartered tomatoes to a pot over medium-high heat. Using a clean potato masher, gently crush the tomatoes until they start to break down. Once the tomatoes are cut, they start to release pectinase enzymes, which will cause the tomato juice to separate. Heating kills the pectinase enzymes, so you want to put heat on the tomatoes as soon as they're cut.
4. While they are cooking, quarter another third of the tomatoes, and add those to the pot, crushing and stirring as you go.
5. Quarter and add the remaining third of the tomatoes and continue crushing until all the tomatoes are broken down.
6. Reduce heat to medium and allow them to simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Remove from heat. Using a sieve or food mill, separate the juice from the seeds and peels.
8. Return the juice to the pot and bring to a boil. Remove immediately and ladle into sterilized jars, using a sterilized funnel, making sure to leave 1/2" of headspace. To each jar, add 1 tbsp of bottled lemon juice or 1/2 tsp of citric acid. You can also add 1 tsp of salt to each jar for taste, but that is optional.
9. Wipe the rims of the cans with a clean paper towel and top with a sterilized lid and rim and tighten until finger-tight. Fill your water bath canner with water and bring to a boil.
10. Process in water bath canner for 35 minutes.
11. Carefully remove, and allow to set undisturbed until the jars have properly sealed.

Recipe Notes

Please check with your local extension office for any changes on times/temps/high altitude.

Make sure you check out all the free Canning and Preserving Recipes we have on Little House Living! 

I recommend a Presto Pressure Canner and the book Putting Food By for all your canning projects!

Do you have any leftover tomatoes that need to be used? Here are some other canning and preserving tomato recipes you might enjoy:

Fresh Tomato BBQ Sauce & Freezing Tip
Canning Tomato Soup
Home Canning Tomatoes
Homemade Ketchup with Fresh Tomatoes
My Go-To Salsa Recipe (For Canning)

Don’t let those green tomatoes go to waste! Simple (and Delicious) Uses for Green Tomatoes

Will you be canning any tomato juice this year? What tomato items do you can?

This post on How to Can Tomato Juice was originally posted on Little House Living in August 2013. It has been updated as of August 2019.