Tomato Varities for Canning

[loki]

Ok, so I'm planning next years garden. I know that I can BWB can tomatoes
if they have a high enough acid content, but what varieties would that be?

I'm partial to Viva Italia for sauces.

Loki

[rjwhite]

(attempted flame prevention)
USDA Agriculture Information Bulletin #539 section 3, page 5 says:
2 tablespoons lemon juice per quart, 1 tablespoon per pint for whole
crushed, or juiced tomatoes. Citric acid can also be used.

Then you can use any tomato you wish. I prefer Viva Italia also but
there are many canning tomatoes. Totally Tomatoes or Tomato Growers
Supply have loads of canning tomatoes.

I read in a gardening magazine (Organic Gardening?) that all tomatoes
have about the same acidity and it is the acid / sugar balance that
colors our perception. This was in reference to people saying that
yellow tomatoes are less acid. Supposedly someone tested red vs.
yellow and the scientifically measured acidity was the same.
Sorry for the lack of a concrete reference.

Just as growing conditions affect flavor, it is possible that acidity
would vary as well.

So the safest is to add the lemon juice or citric acid.

[Brett Sherwood]

For the sake of convienience make sure you use "determinant" plants that
produce all of their fruit at the same time (one picking)... I would highly
suggest "Roma" and "Heinz 57" varieties of plants.

loki <lo...@inlink.com> wrote in message
news:gDv36.195$Gl6....@news1.primary.net...

[loki]

I've used Roma in the past, but last year I planted both it and Viva Italia.
For taste I prefer the Viva Italia. It is also determinate. The Viva
Italia also did not have Roma's problems with blossom end rot (though it was
the first year I've had that even in the Roma's) and it seemed to be a
hardier plant.

Loki

"Brett Sherwood" <b.r.sh...@worldnet.att.net> wrote

> For the sake of convienience make sure you use "determinant" plants that
> produce all of their fruit at the same time (one picking)... I would
highly
> suggest "Roma" and "Heinz 57" varieties of plants.
>
>
> loki <lo...@inlink.com> wrote

> > Ok, so I'm planning next years garden. I know that I can BWB can

[zxcvbob]

I've grown Viva Italia many times, but this year I grew Heinz 1439
instead. The Viva Italias are succeptable to black spots when I grow
them, but the Heinz tomatoes were beautiful. The Heinz tomatoes were
probably a little lower yielding.

Best regards,
Bob

[ECade]

Bob, are you talking about canning whole tomatoes? I want to find a type
that cans up like those you get in whole canned Heinz tomatoes. This year,
I'm going to try a plum from Russia called DeBarao; 3 to 4 oz. with great
flavor, meaty and prolific.

"zxcvbob" <b...@a51web.net> wrote in message
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[zxcvbob]

I quartered the ones that I canned this year and cooked them using the
Stewed Tomatoes recipe in the Ball Blue Book, except I substituted
jalapeno peppers for all the bell pepper and celery. I think I also
added an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce to the recipe to make the juice
nice and red. It was a canned salsa experiment to see if I could make
my own picante sauce that didn't taste like vinegar using an "approved"
recipe. Maybe the tomato sauce invalidated the test, I don't know. The
jars sure turned out pretty. It actually could use a little vinegar or
lemon juice to balance the flavor. When I eat the stuff, I add a little
more salt and some bottled lime juice.

The tomatoes were small enough that I think you could can them whole,
but you are not gonna get results like Heinz, Hunts, etc., because they
add calcium chloride as a firming agent to keep the tomatoes from
falling apart in processing. I have had limited success using epsom
salts as a firming agent for cucumbers, but I haven't tried it with
tomatoes. One really doesn't want to risk adding too much epsom salts
to their food, knowhutimean?

Best regards,
Bob

--
"I have seen the future and it is just like the present, only longer."
--Kehlog Albran

[zxcvbob]

I forgot to mention -- I left out all the sugar from the stewed tomatoes
recipe (in the Low Acid Foods secion of the Ball Blue Book) when I used
it to make picante sauce.

Bob

*****

[Vandy]

On Sun, 18 Feb 2001 18:14:03 -0500, "ECade" <ogr...@your-net.com>
wrote:

>Bob, are you talking about canning whole tomatoes? I want to find a type
>that cans up like those you get in whole canned Heinz tomatoes. This year,
>I'm going to try a plum from Russia called DeBarao; 3 to 4 oz. with great
>flavor, meaty and prolific.

Have you tried Rutgers tomatoes? Rutgers used to be the most common
tomato grown in the midwest for processing purposes. They are a high
acid, rounded red fruit.

[Pooky]

I don't know many varieties of tomato or much about canning, but the 'red
delicious' ones I grew this year were quite meaty, and very few seeds. The
plant itself was quite hearty too, only just 'gave up the ghost' this month.

--
~~~~~~
Pooky
Remove the cat when replying.

Vandy <tang...@america.net> wrote in message
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