Tomato Preserves

I was blessed this weekend with a follower, Erin, who shared with me a recipe that I have done before from a different canning book but Erin's is from the Joy of Pickling. It has an interesting twist in that there is a lemon slice at the bottom of each jar. It looks so interesting I asked her if I could share the recipe and the pic that she put up.

Thanks again Erin for a great inspiration for using tomatoes in a classic way that many remember from the past! Note: this is not a beginners recipe!

Tomato Preserve
Makes 7-8 half pint jars

5lbs tomatoes
8 cups sugar
2 tbs pickling spices
6 thin slices of ginger
4 medium lemons sliced
Blanch tomatoes -2 min- plunge cold water, core, peel & quarter. In a bowl mix sugar with tomatoes and cover with plastic wrap let stand 6-12 hours in the refrigerator. (This is called macerating the tomatoes)

Drain the liquid from tomatoes into a saucepan. Tie the pickling spices and ginger in

cheesecloth . Bring the tomato liquid to a boil and stir until syrup forms a thread- 220 degrees F. on a candy thermometer. (This is how you know it will set)

Add tomatoes, lemons, and spices. Reduce heat to low and cook tomato mixture until dark red and translucent.
Skim off any foam - remove spices -with plastic utensil remove lemon slices place in bottoms of sterilized jars.

Ladle preserves into half pint jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims and add hot lid/ring.  Process the jars for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath. Do not start timing until the water has come back to a full rolling boil.