There are several ways to cook fresh, raw tomatoes down into a sauce that can be frozen. Here's how I do it: I wash, core and quarter the tomatoes (or cut smaller ones in half) and run them through my tomato press/strainer using the 'sauce' screen. That gives me what is essentially thin, watery tomato juice. Then I put it in a heavy stockpot and simmer it until the volume is reduced down by about 50%. That gives a fairly thick sauce. You can reduce the volume only by about 30-35% if you want a thinner sauce. I stir fairly often. How long it takes will vary depending on the size of the pot, how full it is and how watery your tomatoes were to begin with, but it is not unusual for me to simmer it for 6 to 8 hours with a normal big stockpot, or up to 10 hours if I am using my 21-quart canner as a stock pot for boiling down tomatoes. I am starting out with about 40-50 lbs. of tomatoes per batch though, and that plays a part in how long it takes to boil down. A smaller quantity of tomatoes will boil down a little more quickly. When it has reached the thickness I desire, I pull the pot off the burner and let it cool. Once the sauce has cooled, I ladle it into plastic freezer storage boxes, leaving 1/2" headspace. I label it "Tomato Sauce" plus the date and put it in the deep freeze. I use the Arrow brand Freezer Boxes sold on the canning aisle at Wal-Mart. Our Wal-Mart is always sold out of them at this time of year, but our Tractor Supply Store usually has them in stock all the time during canning season. If you do not have a tomato press/strainer, you can either puree your tomatoes in a food processor or you can chop the tomatoes into about 1" size pieces, cook them, and then strain out the seeds using a colander or strainer with fine mesh or small holes. Later on, you can make whatever you want...pasta sauce, soups, stews, etc. from your frozen sauce. Just thaw it and use it. If you want to can the tomato sauce in canning jars instead of putting the sauce in freezer boxes, you'll have to add an acidifying agent, usually lemon juice, for safety reasons. The recipe for canning tomato sauce can be found at the linked website. This recipe for canning tomato sauce can be used for making sauce to freeze, but you can skip adding the lemon juice since you're freezing instead of canning. If what you actually want is to go ahead and make full-fledged spaghetti sauce and then freeze it, there is a recipe for that in the Ball Blue Book that is separate from the standard canned spaghetti sauce recipe. That recipe might be at the Ball website (freshpreserving.com). Sammy, Reducing the tomato juice via simmering or boiling takes care of the issue of the sauce being too watery. It also intensifies the flavor. Mia, The most important thing about the Annie's Salsa recipe is to follow the directions exactly and make only the substitutions that are specifically stated as being allowed--such as substituting ReaLemon or ReaLime juice for some or all of the vinegar, or substituting some hotter pepper for some or all of the jalapenos, as long as the volume of peppers remains the same as what is stated in the recipe. There's a million threads about Annie's Salsa on the Harvest forum because the recipe has been around a while, and there have been some modifications done over the years, based on the advice of the ag extension service that worked with Annie to test the recipe for safety. While being creative and adding your own special touch to recipes when cooking is fun, you cannot employ that creativity in canning because any change you make that could affect density or pH of the product being canned could compromise its safety. That's why everyone on the Harvest forum lists the approved changes when the recipe is discussed--to ensure people don't make unapproved changes. Hope this helps, Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Preserving Tomatoes

I will throw my 2 cents in on this subject. I was told that the skins have a lot of vitamins so just blend everything into a food processor. My sauce came out bitter and nasty. A real waste of a lot of tomatoes....all heirlooms....raised from seed and babied all spring/summer. However seeds don't bother me. Go figure. I've never noticed any bitterness with the seeds left in. So do what you like but I think if you have any prediliction to a sensitive pallet I would recommend removing the skins and seeds. When I make sauce (before this bad experiment) I usually drop the tomatoes in a hot bath for 30 seconds or so....remove them with tongs and put them in ice water. Remove the skins and core center and place a bunch in a collander over a bucket and salt generously. Let them sit for a while and then everything but the juice goes in a copper bottom pot. I add italian spices and let the sauce cook down to a desired thickness. This can take a day or sometimes more. Then I freeze because I can add garlic or whatever else I want without worrying about acid levels for canning. Homemade sauce is one of those labors of love that is truly worth the trouble. Wait until the cold winter to drag out a quart or two. Summer in a jar most definitely. Duane

I use coconut oil (kept at room temperature) instead of vegetable oil or shortening. Coconut oil is very stable at cool room temperatures and has an extremely long shelf-life, which is important to those of us who do home food storage. Coconut oil will easily store for up to 5-years, while vegetable oil lasts 6-months at room temperature (less time if stored where it gets a lot of light, or at temperatures above 70F), or 1-year if you refrigerate it. Refrigeration is suggested rather than freezing. Check the label of the container or call the help-line on the label for more information. Cooking oil is actually already rancid from the process it takes to make it and storage due to exposure to heat, light and oxygen during processing and home storage and use. Rancid oil doesn't have to smell rancid to be rancid. The exposure to oxygen did that long before it started to smell rancid. By the time it smells rancid, it's been that way for a long time. Cooking oil is oxidized to the point of being a body-damaging free radical. I haven't used vegetable oil or shortening in over 25 years. If you have a FoodSaver vacuum sealer, you can vacuum-seal oil after you open it to keep the oxygen out of the container. Heat, light and oxygen are the enemy of all foods. Eliminate those and they will last longer. (See the link below.) I store foods vacuum-sealed in FoodSaver bags in the freezer in order to prevent freezer burn, wasted food, and increase the storage time. Vacuum-sealing also helps maintain the quality of the stored foods. Once again, oxygen is the enemy of stored food, and that includes in the freezer. Freezing will slow down foods from going rancid, it just won't PREVENT it if there is oxygen present. Vacuum-sealing will prevent moisture in foods from migrating from the food to the air and creating ice crystals, unlike zip-lock bags in which you trap air in. A true vacuum can't be done using a drinking straw and drawing air out of the bag, but that's is an improvement over a bag full of air. If you have ice crystals accumulating in your foods (especially present in bags of bread or burger/hot dog buns), you don't have it properly stored. To improve the storage of foods in the freezer, it requires as tight a wrapping as possible to prevent as much air as possible being in contact with the food. -Grainlady

I always prep ahead for travel. But i agree that more than 24hrs for a marinade is too much. We prep in kits. I do all the prep in separate containers and bags and add together at the proper time. Having everything washed and sliced and ready to go saves headaches. I even prep and portion lunch meats and cheeses in foodsaver bags. Veggie snacks like carrots and celery sticks and some snap peas all washed and packed together to have with hummus or goat cheese. We travel with two coolers. One is packed with frozen meals and i freeze water bottles with iced tea and lemon to let thaw for a beverage and freeze gallon water jugs as the ice...freezing water in qrt zip-locks flat frozen is another way to keep frozen foods frozen. Those little camper fridges are small and when stuffed are not that efficient. I used to pack my unfrozen meats with a frozen water bottle in the bag when we traveled with our camper. We recently did 3 days in the truck and about to do it again. Tailgate chopping is not fun. So i have been prepping all morning. Even a charcuterie plate for the long ferry ride. I've chopped and prepped all the fixings for the tuna salad... olives, celery, apple, nuts, red pepper, artichoke hearts in the marinade...add the tuna on the road. Same mix for a small pasta salad and a potato salad. (feta and sundried tomatoes with the pasta, a bit of mustard in the potato salad). Zip-locks are great as they double as mixing bowls. And pack flat. Not sure if i would do the eggs ahead of time. The flavors might meld and not 'taste like home'. Though we just found our old favorite corn cake recipe and it is better if made 24 hrs ahead of time. Some egg batter mixes are best a day or two later.