Oh yes. Makes the best Bloody Marys in the world.

Yes, you can use a boiling water bath to process tomato juice. But remember, tomatoes are borderline for being acid enough for canning in a boiling water bath due to low-acid varieties of tomatoes being grown these days, so you MUST add the proper amount of bottled lemon juice or citric acid to the tomato juice to assure the juice is acid enough. Just follow the recipe in the Ball Blue Book (use a recent copy) , or the recipes located at the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Do NOT use an old recipes that does NOT have the added acid.

You can also freeze tomato juice (recipe in the Ball Blue Book), as an option, and you can also can tomato juice blends (similar to V-8) by mixing tomatoes, carrots, celery, green pepper, onion, parsley, salt and bottled lemon juice (not more than 3-cups of other vegetables to the 22-pounds of tomatoes).

Do you already have the canning equipment and jars? Do you grow your own tomatoes in amounts large enough to fill a canner? It takes approximately 22-pounds of tomatoes to make 7-quarts of juice. If you have to invest in equipment or purchase the tomatoes, along with the utilities it will take to process the tomato juice and the additional electricity to cool the hot house associated with canning if you use air conditioning, then it may actually cost you more for the juice than buying commercial.

In order to get the most nutrition possible out of the food you can, the fresh-picked food needs to be canned within 24-hours of harvest. Do you have enough fresh produce to meet the needs and fill a canner (22-pounds), because canning less than a canner full is wasted money.

Oh, I think it is most definitely worth it. Home canned tomato products are worlds different from the store bought stuff ,plus you know what's in it. You can waterbath it with lemon juice if you wish, but I dislike the flavor and my mother is allergic to lemons. I use citric acid instead.

Annie

Thanks everyone! @Grainlady - for me, it's about the experience and freshness as much as cost savings. I do have everything I will need except a food mill. I may need to buy some tomatoes, but I'm OK with that.....

Anyone got a recommendation on a cost effective food mill?

Thanks!

Jennie

Not juice, but with tomato gluts I make a roasted tomato sauce and freeze. Just halve the tomatoes and roast in the oven with garlic, thyme, salt and a little olive oil. Then, I blend and sieve then freeze for sauces all through the winter.

Thanks all - can anyone tell me what the most current edition of the ball blue book is? Thanks

I would say it is worth it if you have a food mill. I got mine specifically because I wanted to can more tomato products. Get the Roma mill kind, not the Foley mill kind, that was what I started with but it takes too much effort IMHO. With a Roma or Victorio style mill, you can crank (literally!) out tomato juice quite fast, if you have the tomatoes. Last year I got a ton of surplus ones from a friend. My neighbor just does the juice, which is the quickest, and then she uses it later on to make soups. I'm not a juice fan, so I do cooked tomato things, which is actually more labor intensive. You can always cook the canned product down later.

I have made home canned tomato juice. And after a few years of experimenting to get the juice the consistency of commercial juice. I would core and half the tomatoes and cook down till soft. I used a lot of plum tomatoes, less seeds and more pulp. Instead of the food mill, I would use my blender and blend the warm soften tomatoes to a liquid showing no solids. Seeds disappeared. Then I would bring that mix back to a boil and jar it adding lemon and a bit of salt. Hot water bathed as required. The juice never separated, it was thick like factory made. The method with the food mill always separated and had a thinner texture.

@Marcopolo5 - did you also blend up the skins? Or remove them somehow?

Yes jennie I use everything but the core. I use both plum and regular tomatoes. Half or quarter the larger ones, cook them till they soften a little. A little past what you would do for blanching to peel. Then I grind them in batches in a blender. Only fill the jar about 2/3 full, each time. I have a simple glass container blender cost under $40.00. Not a SUPER model. Blend it till you see only liquid, it will take a minute or two. Will look pink to start because of the air whipped in. Put back in pot and bring to a boil, it will change to tomato juice like you expect . I add a tesp. of salt and tesp. of lemon juice to each quart before sealing for the water bath. Check the length of time to water bath. I think it is worth the effort, specially if you grow your own tomatoes. I you have other questions, I will answer if I know the answer, It is nice to have homemade juice.