Tomato Soup Base for Canning

Yesterday I posted about making tomato soup from fresh tomatoes. It turned out so good! I had a bunch of tomatoes from my last picking that needed to be used up. So I thought.. why not can up the tomato soup base. When I want to use it.. I simply add the salt, sugar, baking soda, butter and milk and serve. So that is what I did.

I started with 25#'s of tomatoes. I cut off the ends and pureed them. I put them in my big 14 quart stock pot. I set it on the stove to boil and reduce...

It took about 3 hours to reduce by almost half....

Then I ran the whole batch through the blender to make it nice and smooth in texture...

I put it back in the stock pot. I added the salt and sugar and heated it back up. Then I filled a quart jar with the soup base and put a new lid and a ring on it....

And put it in the canner....

I did this with the rest of the jars....

I pressure canned this recipe. Tomatoes are borderline on having enough acid to can in a boiling water bath. Since I did not add extra acid to the recipe I decided the safest thing to do was pressure can it.

I pressure canned the batch for 20 minutes at 10lbs of pressure. The Ball Canning book had a similar recipe and that was the time they gave it, so that is what I decided to use.

I ended up with 8 quarts. I was not going to can another batch for just one more quart. I put that quart in the fridge and will serve it for lunch in the next couple days.

To use the soup base, open, heat and add remaining ingredients as posted in the recipe below.
 

Tomato Soup Base for Canning

25#'s tomatoes
10t salt
5T sugar

Chop, puree tomatoes. No need to peel them. Put the puree in a large stock pot. Simmer on medium until reduced by almost half. Remove from heat and let cool. Put batches of tomatoes through the blender to make them smooth. Return to stock pot. Heat and add salt and sugar. You need to do this to taste. Tomatoes are different in flavor and everyone's sense of taste and salt are different. You want it to taste slightly sweet and have enough salt to bring out the taste of the tomatoes.

Fill hot jars with hot soup base. Can in a pressure canner for 20 minutes at 10lbs of pressure (be sure to adjust for altitude).

When it is time to use the soup base open the jar and pour into a pot. Heat on the stove. Then add:

a small dash of baking soda
2T butter
¾ to 1 cup milk (depending on how creamy you desire it)

Heat and serve.