Homemade Tomato Juice Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why do you put lemon juice in homemade tomato juice? ›

The acidity of a tomato is considered borderline between high and low acid foods. Michigan State University Extension recommends ensuring the safe acidity by adding two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or ½ teaspoon of citric acid per quart of tomatoes or tomato juice.

I like to get my tomato juice from V-8 juice. To my V-8 juice I add fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice, hot sauce (like Tabasco or similar), a little Worcestershire Sauce, and salt to taste. Stir it up, and yum-yum.

Once the tomatoes are juiced, bring the juice to a boil over medium heat. Continue to boil for 10 minutes. The juice can be cooked as long as desired to condense and cook off any excess water. Once cooked, remove from the heat and pour into sterilized jars, leaving ½ inch headspace.

To stop that, you have to “turn off” the enzyme by exposing it to heat. Since it's hard to heat the tomatoes quickly enough with home equipment, there is a trick to that. First, take just a few of the tomatoes and cut them into quarters or halves. Place those in the pot and heat while crushing them.

The canned tomatoes may not be safe to eat. ”It is critical when home canning tomatoes … to acidify them during the canning process.” If the tomatoes have not been acidified prior to canning you are risking the possibility of bacterial growth, which can be fatal.

Great tomato flavor is all about balancing acidity and sweetness. Too much of either can leave you with asauce that tastes one-dimensional. Many sources recommend adding a pinch of baking soda to a sauce that's overly tart, which raises the pH and makes it less acidic.

Add Cream. Adding heavy cream will change the flavor of a tomato sauce, but it will also thicken it. Drizzle in the cream and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce has your desired consistency.

Cinnamon and nutmeg to eliminate tomato sourness

If you use canned or bottled peeled tomatoes, you can "soften" the sourness by adding half a teaspoon of cinnamon or nutmeg while cooking.

You can use a variety of plums, beefsteaks, brandywine, and Campari tomatoes when making tomato juice.

Inversion Canning

Once secured, the jar is inverted (flipped upside down) and left to cool for several minutes before placed right side up. The thought behind the method is the hot food will sterilize the seal while creating a vacuum by allowing air to escape.

Can you can tomato juice without water bath? ›

And you don't need a water bath canner either; any pot large enough to cover the jars with at least one inch of water works. Whichever canning method you choose, canning tomatoes always requires acidification to make them safe.

The only time you need to be concerned about the presence of tiny bubbles in your product is when they are active, start moving or fizzy up to the top of the jar when you open it. If that occurs, your product may be fermenting or contaminated. But if the bubbles are inactive, they are totally benign.

It's All About the Pectin

It gives sauces and jellies an even, thick consistency as they cook. The trouble with fresh tomatoes is that they contain an enzyme that breaks down pectin. So as you're preparing your sauce, those little enzymes are eating up all that magical pectin… ultimately leading to a watery sauce.

Unfortunately you should start over. The lemon juice (or citric acid) is necessary to get them acidic enough to prevent botulism growth, since tomatoes aren't quite acidic enough on their own. That means completely starting over, in particular clean and re-sterilize the jars. You can reuse the lids, though.

Add 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon citric acid to quart jars. Use half this amount for pints. Add 1 teaspoon salt per quart (1/2 teaspoon per pint) to jars, if desired.

Unfortunately, now that the pectin is dissolved and free, the strands of pectin repel each other because they carry an electric charge that is negative. Without a little help, the pectin strands can't come together to form a network that will set your batch of jam — that's where the lemon juice comes into play.

But say the tomato's acidity is muted, its flavor a tad too close to cloying. A shot of red wine vinegar might do the trick here, but that adds its own flavor; a small splash of humble lemon can brighten the sauce exponentially without stealing the spotlight.