Many recipes such as soups, homemade sauces, and canning tomato juice call for peeled tomatoes because the skin can ruin an otherwise smooth and silky texture, that’s why it is very important to know how to peel tomatoes.
Removing said skin requires a bit of effort, but trust us when we say that the results are well worth it. To peel tomatoes, you have to wash the fruits, score the bottom, and shock them. You can also use your microwave to zap them in short intervals.
If you want to learn how to peel tomatoes quickly and easily, keep reading this step-by-step guide!
As you can probably guess by now, we absolutely love canning. From pumpkins to mushrooms and even salmon, the possibilities are practically endless. But do you know what all the recipes have in common? That the key to ensuring optimal flavor after canning lies in the correct preparation of the food.
When it comes to preparing tomatoes for canning, there’s no way around it, you have to peel them. This might sound like a hassle, but it doesn’t have to be if you use the right technique!
Let’s gather some supplies before we start. This is what you’re going to need to peel your tomatoes:
The easiest method to peel tomatoes is by blanching them briefly in boiling water and then immediately cooling them in ice water. These are the steps you should follow:
The peels should slide right off, so you can simply use your hands to remove them. For stubborn spots, a small pairing knife should do the trick. Now your tomatoes are ready to be canned!
If you want to avoid burnt fingertips and using a knife, you can use your microwave. This technique is the best option when you just need to peel a few tomatoes rather than a whole batch.
Here are the steps to peel tomatoes in the microwave:
As you can see, by using your microwave, you can get peeled tomatoes in a matter of minutes. One downside this technique has is that microwaving often heat unevenly, which might lead to some parts of the tomato getting overcooked. To avoid this as much as possible, try to microwave just a few fruits at a time (no more than 3) and do it in short intervals.
In most cases, it’s merely a matter of preference. The tomato skin has a very different texture from the flesh, and it won’t blend into the mixture when you’re making sauces and purées. This means you’ll get small chunks of skin in what should be a uniformly smooth texture. Moreover, the skin of the tomato adds a bitter flavor to the mixture.
When it comes to canning, peeling the tomatoes is a requirement because of two reasons. The first one being that the skin is where most of the bacteria are, and the second, that those tomatoes are most likely end up being a sauce, so why not save yourself the hassle by peeling them before canning?
Removing the seeds from the tomato is another important step in preparing the fruit to be canned. You can do it easily by cutting the tomato in half and scooping out the seeds with a spoon. Alternatively, you can cut the fruit into quarters and push the seeds out with your thumb.
The cooking process breaks down the cell walls in the tomato flesh and dissolves them. By shocking the fruit (i.e.quickly boiling and chilling it), you avoid cooking the tomato through and only dissolve a layer just beneath the skin. This process releases the skin and allows you to remove it easily.
There actually is! We always like to use as much fruit or vegetable as possible, and we’ve found a way to use the tomato peels and avoid wasting them. You can lay out the peels on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and dry them in the oven. When they’re ready, pulverize them, and you’ll have a tomato sprinkle you can incorporate into your favorite recipes.
Peeling tomatoes might seem like a hassle at first, but it actually requires very little effort on your part, and you can have them ready in just a few minutes.
Skinned tomatoes can be canned for long-term storage or blended into sauces and soups with a deliciously smooth texture and sweet flavor.
Once you get the hang of it, you can apply the same method for peeling peaches!
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