Introduction: Delicious Homemade Tomatoes Juice (4 Types) - Only Tomatoes and Salt-

About: Hi!! I really like challenges and handmade so here i am:). I also like childhood - this is were from i got the name of my blog (my real name is Ruxandra, or Rux - as i'm usually called:P).

Hi! Did you know that only using tomatoes and salt you can obtain some great juice and canned tomatoes for the winter? I really love these in the cold winter days - you can use it in soups, on pizza, in different types of food. If you have sweet tomatoes and you don't add salt you can drink it by itself (or use it in some combinations, as you like).
I love eating some think juice with sarmale - a traditional romanian dish.
I'll try to explain in my first step-by step instructable (i usually make photo instructables beacuse they seem easier to me:P) how to make juice and tomatoes in the bottle in 4 ways:). This are some examples of what i've made these days:

Step 1: Getting Ready


You are going to need:
- tomatoes
- salt
- a little bit of oil
and:
- bottles (cleand:P)
- heavy bottomed pan
- stainless strainer (this is only for last two types of juice) and enameled strainer
- stainless soup laddle
- wooden spoon
- stainless plate
- enameled kettle
- stainless tea spoon

Step 2: Tomatoes in the Bottle and Juice for Soups

1st step:
- washing really well the tomatoes
- boilling water

When the water is boilling you add the tomatoes for some seconds (like 30) and than you put them into a pan/ bowl)
This is the way you are going to ease the peeling step... which is next!

Step 3: Separation

2nd step:
-we separate the skin, and we put the fruit in one pan
-we put the seed part and the skin that has some fruit on it in a separate pan (for the juice that is going to be used in soups) - like in the image below

(tnx Grand'ma for help)

Step 4: Boiling

The next step is .. boiling of course. At one point in the process (when it starts to boil:P) we've added the salt. We used one wooden spoon of salt for a 5l pan. You can of course adjust the quantity depending of what kind of salt you use, and how salty you like it to be. We like it moderately.
And of course you have to keep on stirring with the wooden spoon.
The juice is not so thick and it's just perfect for your soups. The "tomatoes on the bottle" are going to boil until the look pretty much like a juice with parts of tomatoes on it. Ours were ready in less than 1h..
Before canning we have to take the foam off with the wooden spoon .

Step 5: Canning

After you take of the foam you can start pouring the juice into the bottles.
I used the enameled kettle, the soup laddle (stainless) and the stainless tea spoon. I've used some stainless plates under the bottle and the kettle (because the juice was really hot - it prevents the bottle from breaking.
After pouring the juice into the bottle - leaving 3-4 cm empty, you pour some oil (like 1/2 cm) to prevent the juice from spoiling. Put the cap and make sure it's hermetically close. Put the label... and there you go.. just one step away from finish.

Step 6: "Warm Sleep" and Ready!

After canning them you have to let them "sleep" in a cosy, warm bed (i've made them a bed from some pillows (around) and covers, and they stayed there until they slowly cooled down - about 24 h...). After that you can store them in a cool place - a pantry.

And these are the first two types of canned tomato juice:
- a light juice for the soups
- "tomatoes in the bottle" - this is the rough translation and i've decided to use it because it sounds funny:)
You can use it when you cook (there are parts of tomatoes in it, like when you cook with fresh tomatoes).


Step 7: Tomatoe Juice (x2)


There are many ways of making juice - i've just shown how i make the juice for soups. That juice was really light.
For the first type i've used large tomatoes - i love this tomatoes, they are really tasty and natural:D! The second it's made from cherry tomatoes. You can let the juice sweet (without adding salt) if you want to drink tomatoe juice, or you can add salt if you want to use it for cooking (we used salt this time).
To see the tools we need please see step1 .

Step 8: Getting Ready for the Pan


The first type of juice is that when you repeat the 2nd and 3rd step (that is washing and boiling water to peel off the skin easily)

Step 9: Boiling

For this version i've cut the skin off and boiled the rest (the boiling process is the same as in the "tomatoes in the bottles". Don't forget to clean the foam.

Step 10: The Strainer

Now you are going to first use the enameled strainer to get rid of seeds. Atfer that use the stainless strainer ... making sure you pass through it also the pulp.
After you do so, you have to boil the juice again for at least 1 h (depending of hoe thin or think you want it to be).

After that repeat step: 5 and 6 :)

Step 11: Cheery Tomatoes

The difference from the last juice is that these are boiled also with the skin (we are not using the boiling water step anymore - and you cand do so also in the case of larger tomatoes). This juice is thicker (after "the strainer step" we've boiled them more). If you don't use salt, this is ideal for drinking. I love to eat this with sarmale:D!

well, hope you liked the instructable (sorry if there are mistakes - it's really really late here and i've tried to make it fast because tomorrow i have more to do)

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