For cooking tomatoes in their own juice, you can use large, medium, and small fruits, and even damaged and slightly spoiled ones. This blank can be stored at room temperature throughout the winter, because natural organic acids in tomato juice are excellent preservatives.
Tomato preparation
Rinse and sort the tomatoes that you have selected for canning: in one direction, those that are destined to remain intact, in the other - those that will be used for juice. Put the first ones in jars, which must be treated with hot steam or scalded with boiling water in advance.
Sort out the rest of the tomatoes, removing the stalk with a knife and cutting out the spoiled or damaged areas. It is worth noting that some housewives, when canning, do not remove the stalks from the tomatoes, believing that, firstly, the fragrant green tail gives the preparation an additional aroma, and, secondly, with them the tomatoes look more appetizing and picturesque when they are served on the table in winter.
Juicing
The first way. Cut tomatoes, sorted out and prepared for juice, and pass through a juicer, add salt, sugar and spices to the resulting juice and boil over medium heat for 15 minutes.
The second way (manual). Scroll the tomatoes, cut into pieces, through a meat grinder. You can put the resulting mass in cheesecloth, tie the ends and hang over a saucepan, into which the juice will drain. You can use the mass that you have obtained as juice, if you are not embarrassed by the presence of seeds in it. Boil for 15 minutes, adding salt, sugar and spices.
The third method (also manual). Put the tomatoes cut into several pieces in a bowl or a wide saucepan, cover with a lid and put on low heat. The tomatoes will gradually release their juice. Do not bring the contents to a boil, the tomatoes should not boil, but simmer over a low heat. When foam begins to appear on the resulting juice (the first signs of boiling), remove the basin from the heat and rub the hot tomatoes through a sieve. Add salt, sugar and spices to the juice.
When adding salt, sugar and spices to tomato juice, observe the following proportions: for 1 liter of juice 1 tbsp. salt and 1 tbsp. granulated sugar. Put herbs and spices (black and allspice peas, bay leaves, cloves, dill seeds, etc.) to taste. Some housewives prefer not to add spices at all, believing that tomatoes in their own juice and without them are quite tasty.
Cooking tomatoes in your own juice
If you are not very fond of fiddling with sterilization, do this: pour the tomatoes laid out in jars with boiling water, cover with lids. After 2-3 minutes, drain the boiling water, and pour the tomatoes with hot (almost boiling) tomato juice. Roll up the jars with lids, wrap them in a blanket (warm scarves, old fur coats) and leave to cool completely.
If you pour tomatoes with juice cooked in a bowl over low heat (when you have not boiled it), then sterilize the filled jars for 8-10 minutes.
You can store tomatoes in their own juice at room temperature, but always in a place protected from bright light.
