Canning crushed tomatoes is a hot-pack job: peel ripe tomatoes, heat them in their own juice, add acid to every jar, then process pints 35 minutes or quarts 45 minutes in a boiling-water canner at 0 to 1,000 feet. That is the USDA method for crushed tomatoes with no added liquid, and it is the one to follow if you want jars that stay safe on a pantry shelf.
Plan on about 2 3/4 pounds of tomatoes per quart, or 22 pounds for a canner load of 7 quarts. You get a thick, ready-to-cook product for chili, soup, and pasta sauce without standing over a pot for hours first. Skip the extra water. Add the acid. Process the full time for your altitude.
What You Need Before the First Tomato Hits the Pot
Use ripe, firm, unblemished fruit. Green shoulders and soft spots get trimmed off. A bushel, about 53 pounds, usually yields 17 to 20 quarts.
You also need:
- Pint or quart canning jars, new lids, and bands
- A boiling-water canner with a rack, or a pressure canner if you prefer the shorter process
- Bottled lemon juice, food-grade citric acid, or 5% vinegar
- A large stainless steel pot, a potato masher or wooden spoon, a jar lifter, and a bubble remover
Salt is optional. Use 1/2 teaspoon per pint or 1 teaspoon per quart if you want it. Do not treat salt as a safety ingredient. It is seasoning only.
Wash the tomatoes. Blanch them in boiling water 30 to 60 seconds, until the skins split. Plunge them into cold water, slip the skins, core them, and cut away any bruised or discolored flesh. Quarter the fruit and keep it moving toward the stove. Sitting cut tomatoes on a board is how you get watery layers later.
Why Every Jar Needs Added Acid
Modern tomatoes sit near the pH line that separates high-acid foods from low-acid foods. Some batches test safe. Some do not. Official acidification directions exist because you cannot taste the difference, and pressure canning does not cancel the requirement.
Add the acid to the empty hot jar, then pack the tomatoes on top. That way you never wonder if a jar got skipped.
Choose lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar
| Acid | Amount per pint | Amount per quart | What you will taste |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottled lemon juice | 1 Tbsp | 2 Tbsp | A light citrus note |
| Citric acid | 1/4 tsp | 1/2 tsp | Almost no extra flavor |
| Vinegar, 5% acidity | 2 Tbsp | 4 Tbsp | A sharper tang |
Use bottled lemon juice, not juice squeezed from a fresh lemon. Fresh lemons vary too much in acid. Vinegar is allowed at those amounts, but it changes the flavor more than the other two. If someone in the house is sensitive to sulfites in bottled citrus, citric acid is the cleaner swap.
A pinch of sugar can soften a tart edge. Do not cut the acid to make the tomatoes taste sweeter. The acid is not optional seasoning.
How to Can Crushed Tomatoes, Start to Seal
This is a hot pack. Cold raw tomatoes do not belong in this recipe.
- Heat about one-sixth of the quartered tomatoes in a wide pot over high heat. Crush them as they warm so they release juice and keep the pot from scorching.
- When that first batch boils, add the remaining quarters a little at a time, stirring constantly. Those later tomatoes do not need crushing. Heat and stirring break them down.
- After the last tomatoes go in, boil the pot gently for 5 minutes.
- Add the measured acid to each hot jar, plus salt if you want it.
- Ladle in the hot tomatoes, pressing them so juice fills the gaps. Leave 1/2 inch of headspace.
- Remove air bubbles, wipe the rims, apply lids, and screw bands fingertip tight.
- Process in a boiling-water canner with water covering the jars by at least 1 inch, or use the pressure-canner times below.
When the time is up, turn off the heat, wait 5 minutes, then lift the jars. Do not retighten bands. Let them sit 12 to 24 hours. A sealed lid stays down when you press the center.
Crush only the first tomatoes in the pot
That odd first-batch step is not busywork. Cutting a tomato turns on an enzyme that chews through pectin. If you dice a whole sinkful and then wander off, the solids and liquid separate in the jar. Heating the first cut fruit to a boil, then adding more fruit into that hot pot, shuts the enzyme down. Iowa State Extension explains the same chemistry for juice and crushed tomatoes.
You still may see a little layering. Stir the jar when you open it. Separation is a looks issue, not a safety issue, as long as the seal held and the food smells and looks normal.
Water Bath Times or a Pressure Canner
At 0 to 1,000 feet, a boiling-water canner needs 35 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts. Raise those times as elevation goes up: 40 and 50 minutes from 1,001 to 3,000 feet, 45 and 55 minutes from 3,001 to 6,000 feet, and 50 and 60 minutes above 6,000 feet.
A weighted-gauge pressure canner shortens the clock. Process pints or quarts for 20 minutes at 5 pounds if you live at 0 to 1,000 feet, or at 10 pounds above 1,000 feet. Other tested pressure combinations exist in the same USDA tables. Acid still goes in the jar.
Choose the water bath if that is the pot you already own and you can spare the extra minutes. Choose pressure if you want less time in a rolling boil. Neither method lets you skip peeling, hot packing, or acid.
After processing, store sealed jars in a cool, dark cupboard. High-acid home-canned foods keep their quality about 12 to 18 months. Label the lid with the date and the acid you used. Opened jars belong in the refrigerator and should be used within a few days.
Paste Tomatoes Versus Juicy Slicers
Roma, San Marzano, Amish Paste, and other paste types give you a meatier jar with less watery gel. Slicing and heirloom tomatoes are fine to can this way, but they throw more liquid. The jar will look thinner and taste a bit brighter. Mix types if that is what the garden handed you.
If you are working through a pile of beefsteaks, squeeze out some of the seed gel after peeling and before the pot. You are not making sauce yet, so do not cook the tomatoes down for an hour. The tested process stops at that 5-minute boil.
Skip extra vegetables and extra liquid
Onions, peppers, celery, mushrooms, meat, and extra water do not belong in this recipe. Those additions change density and acidity, which means the published times no longer apply. Dried herbs in tiny amounts show up in some tested seasoning notes elsewhere, but the crushed-tomato process itself is plain fruit, acid, and optional salt.
Want a seasoned pasta sauce? Can the tomatoes plain, then build the sauce when you open the jar. That is slower on a weeknight and much safer on canning day.
When Jars Separate, Siphon, or Fail to Seal
Watery layers usually mean the fruit was cut too far ahead, or you used very juicy slicers. Heat faster next time. Shake or stir before cooking.
Siphoning, the messy loss of liquid during processing, often comes from packing too full, skipping the bubble tool, or yanking jars out of a still-boiling canner. Leave the 1/2 inch headspace. Pause 5 minutes before you lift.
A lid that flexes the next day did not seal. Refrigerate that jar and use it soon, or freeze the contents. Do not reprocess tomatoes that sat out overnight. If a sealed jar later bulges, leaks, smells off, or spurts when opened, throw it away without tasting.
Scorching in the pot is a stirring problem. Use a wide pan and keep the heat just high enough to maintain a gentle boil once everything is in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have to peel tomatoes before canning crushed tomatoes?
Yes, if you are following the tested crushed-tomato process. Blanching and peeling cuts the bacterial load on the skin and matches the lab-tested method. A food mill used after heating can remove skins another way, but dumping unpeeled raw tomatoes into jars is not the same recipe.
Can you water bath can crushed tomatoes without lemon juice?
Not if you want a tested, shelf-stable jar. You may swap the lemon juice for the listed amount of citric acid or 5% vinegar. You may not skip acid because the tomatoes “taste tart enough.” Acidification applies to water bath and pressure canning.
How many tomatoes do you need for canning crushed tomatoes?
Budget about 2 3/4 pounds per quart, 14 pounds for 9 pints, or 22 pounds for 7 quarts. Juicy slicers can run a little heavier because you lose more liquid as steam.
Can you add garlic, onion, or fresh basil to the jars?
Not in this recipe. Low-acid add-ins change safety. Keep the jars plain, then sauté garlic and onion when you cook.
How long do the jars last on the shelf?
Use home-canned tomatoes within 12 to 18 months for peak flavor and color. Keep them cool and dark. Any jar with a broken seal, rising lid, or strange odor is done.
Put Those Jars to Work This Week
Open a quart for weeknight chili, a quick puttanesca, braised chicken, or a pot of lentil soup. Because nothing extra went into the jar, you can take the same tomatoes toward salsa-style skillet sauce one night and a creamy tomato soup the next.
See, the whole point of canning crushed tomatoes is fewer decisions in February. Do the peeling and the acid now, process the full time for your altitude, and leave future-you a jar that is ready to become dinner.