Tomato conserva


  • 10 # tomatoes (we use dry-farmed Early Girls, which yield more conserva)
  • 1/2 C olive oil
  • 2t salt
  • large pot
  • food mill
  • olive oil for pan
  • 2 half pints or 4
  1. Rinse and dice the tomatoes.
  2. add oil and salt and bring to a simmer for 3 minutes
  3. run through food mill
  4. pour into 3 trays. Some people use jelly roll pans (aka cookie sheets with sides). We don’t have that much oven space so we put them in 2-3″ deep pans. Longer to cook as a result.
  5. OVEN METHOD: lay out on baking trays and bake at 300 for 3.5 hours stirring every 30-40 min (make sure you scrape up the edges and mix them in), then reduce to 250 until “thick, shiny and brick-colored”.
  6. LONG OVEN METHOD: lay out on baking trays and bake at 350° (325° convection)  for 1 hour  (make sure you scrape up the edges and mix them in every 30 min), then reduce to 200° (190° on convection) for 6-9 hours. We tried this in 2017 and it was wonderful.
  7. SLOW COOKER METHOD: bake on high for 4-6 hours(???) stirring every 30-40 min (make sure you scrape up the edges and mix them in), then reduce to low until thick, shiny and brick-colored”
  8. Use spatula to put into jars, remember to knock out air bubbles. Smaller jars are better. Place into freezer when room temp.
  9. If you want to preserve, probably lemon or more salt needed. Then can with:
    1/4 pints = 6 min
    1/2 pints = 8 min
    1 pint = 12 min
aka: tomato paste
Notes:
Sept 5, 2012
-cooked for 5 hours at 300 and it started to burn. But it was oh-so-tasty.
Aug 18, 2013
-baked 5-6 hours, but was still very juicy. Did not set up the food mill properly so it did not squeeze all the good stuff out. So it is very runny.
-yield 6 pints, sloshy
Aug 24, 2013
-baked 300 for 4 hours.
-yield 2 pints. 10# / pint
Sept 11, 2016
20+ pounds of dry farmed Early Girls
2 hour of simmer (some of it was with seeds and skin, then after food mill)
added olive oil after food mill
Sept 3, 2017
10 pounds of dry farmed Early Girls
5 min simmer.
produced 3 pans (9×13)
1 hour (11-12) at 325°F convection, turned down to 180°F (12-7am). One was ready at 7, the other two at 9am.
Very easy to move. Not so stiff. Low and slow is easier to clean. Not a lot of burning.
Yielded 3 half pints
Sept 16, 2019
40 pounds tomatoes (Dry Farmed, Early Girls)
5 generous pinches of salt (aka “Not nearly enough”)
cook down in large canning pot + pasta pot at first. Cooked down to 40% volume
put in 2 jelly roll pans + crock pot, cooked ~8 hours (11pm). Started at 220°F, then down to 200°F for last hour to avoid burning.
yield: 13 half pints
A few other ideas:
http://www.thedinnerfiles.com/2009/09/04/tomato-conserva/
https://food52.com/blog/4399-tomato-conserva
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-tomato-paste-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-206853


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