How to Make Tomato Preserves

Tomato preserves (also known as conserves) bring the hazy taste of summer to the table, even on the coldest, clearest day of winter. This old-fashioned favorite, not much seen in grocery stores these days, is a bit more difficult to make than most preserves but well worth the extra steps. If you've ever made marmalade, you're well prepared to try your hand at tomato preserves. Once you've tried this not-so-sweet, flavorful spread, you'll never have to give away tomatoes from your garden again--you'll have used them all for preserves to give away at the holidays.

Things You'll Need

• Ripe (but not over-ripe) tomatoes
• Lemons
• Sugar
• Large cooking pot
• Large, heavy saucepan
• Canning sieve or colander
• Ceramic or (hard) plastic bowl
• Clean canning jars
• Paring knife

Instructions

1. 

   Prepare the fruit. Scald tomatoes by dropping them, one by one, into boiling water and lifting them out. This loosens the skin. Core and peel (or pull) off the skin. Squeeze the tomato to get most of the water and seeds out and slice the remaining meat into thin strips. Wash, halve and thinly slice (removing seeds as you go) one lemon for each quart of prepared tomato meat. Put tomato and lemon in a large ceramic or melamine bowl. Cover with an equal measure of sugar. Cover and let sit overnight.

2. 

   Separate the broth. By the next morning, a goodly amount of liquid will have "juiced up" in the bowl. Pour the tomato and lemon mixture into a canning sieve or large colander and catch this liquid in another large bowl. Let the fruit sit in the sieve for a while. Don't get impatient and squash the meat to get the broth. You want to leave as much of the meat in the strainer as possible. You're going to reduce the broth and having bits of tomato and lemon in it will make the reduction take longer. Remove and discard any floating seeds.

3. Reduce the broth. Bring the separated liquid to a slow boil in a heavy pan and simmer until the liquid gets thick and begins to roll instead of bubbling (about a minute). Add the tomato and lemon meats and continue to cook until the mixture jells (about 210 degrees) or drops from a large cooking spoon in blobs instead of drops. This is called "sheeting."

4. Remove the preserves from the heat. Let the preserves sit a few minutes to settle the fruit and cool just a bit for easier handling. Ladle them into sterile jars and seal immediately with canning lids or canning parafin. Let cool and check lids for successful seals.

Tips & Warnings

• You may choose to chop the lemon and tomato or leave the tomato whole. The reality, as any cook knows, is that the tomato meat falls apart when it cooks and the lemon peel doesn't. With the lemon, what you cut is what you end up with.

• Some cooks soak the lemon in sugar for an extra night preceding the tomato soak. This makes the lemon peel sweeter. Since the tomato is supposed to be the star and the lemon's really just to set the color, we prefer doing them together.

• Some recipes add pectin to encourage the jelling process. This helps if you're working with over-ripe or green tomatoes but most just-ripe tomatoes will have enough pectin to jell for conserves without any extra help.

• Tomato seeds are like berry seeds. You can try to remove them all but a few will end up in the finished product. Don't obsess. Unlike berry seeds, tomato seeds are soft and unnoticeable in the finished product.

• Decorate jars for unique holiday gifts. They'll prompt requests for more.

• Be careful to avoid overcooking your preserves. You want them to be reminiscent of the hazy smell of August, not the smoky taste of October.