Freezing summer tomato crop

Step 4: Coring and Peeling

Time for the fun part. You should now have a bowl of cooled tomatoes with very lose skin in front of you. Let's get them ready to package.

If you have a tomato shark you probably know how to use it. So get to it and core those tomatoes. If you don't own one, get one they are a couple of bucks and very handy. Try here. In the mean time, take a sharp paring knife and insert the tip a half inch (Careful not run it through and stab yourself) or so next to the outer edge of the stem part of the tomato. Angle the knife blade towards the center. Rotate the tomato until the knife cuts a full circle around the stem. You should now be able to pop the core and stem out.

Now grasp the tomato firmly in one hand and apply some downward pressure. The skin should slip right off. If it is difficult to remove the skin, try blanching a little longer.

Transfer the cored and peeled tomatoes to a bowl for packaging. Repeat until batch is done.

Comments

[rosewood513]

I have been gardening for over 40 years. I take the ripe tomaotes from my garden wipe them off, I have an organic garden, I toss them in bags and vacuum seal them. The last thing I want to do in the middle of the summer is cook tomatoes and mess up my kitchen. This is the right way to do it but I would rather wait for the winter to take them out and cook them then when it is cold and you want to heat up the house. But thanks for sharing your way of doing it.

[HotPepperMan]

You MUST blanch vegetables (varied times for different veg) before freezing or you will end up with a tasteless and/or spoiled (useless) crop lacking in essential vitamins!!!

[stevequag]

You should use the boil (blanch) method with any fresh frozen vegetables otherwise they will continue To ripen, even in the freezer. Essentially it will kill the active ripening enzymes in the tomato that would otherwise over ripen and dissipate nutrients over a small amount of time and make your healthy summer crop relatively useless to your body.

[tetheredcat]

I used to do this too, right into the freezer. And when Im ready to use them, slip them into very hot tap water, and the skins peel right off. Dont even have to put them in boiling water!

[rosewood513]

Yes that is why I love this way,  peel them nowe or peel thrm latter doesn't matter.   in fact i do this for garlic a lot the skins fall right off when you try to cut them.  :o)

[tetheredcat]

OOH! I didnt think of garlic!!  *off to plan..*

[chiapower]

Me, too!!

[Dr.Bill]

Yeah!!

[Bats22]

In the mean time, take a sharp paring knife and insert the tip a half inch (Careful not run it through and stab yourself) A suggestion for anyone doing paring knife coring--hold the blade between your thumb and forefinger (shown below), to provide a 'stop' for the blade--reduces the stabbing-self-per-capita.