How to Choose the Best Tomatoes for Canning

There is hardly anything better than canning your own delicious, perfectly ripe fruits and vegetables at home.

Sure, it’s a great way to preserve your harvest and pad your pantry, but canned foods also have their own unique taste and texture, enough that they can turn into family favorites in their own right.

Far and away my favorite veggies for home canning are tomatoes. They’re just so versatile, not only for all the different recipes you can use them in but all the different ways you can can them: as juice, sauce, paste, halved, whole, or quartered – and even canned tomato soup!

But no matter the approach, good results always start with picking the perfect tomatoes. And unlike some other veggies, there’s a whole lot to consider! Don’t worry about it, because I’ll be telling you everything you need to know in the rest of this article.

Remember: All Tomatoes Should Be Acidified Prior to Canning!

One quick reminder before we get on to the actual criteria for selection.

Remember that all ripe tomatoes must be acidified in order to be canned safely, whether you are using water bath or pressure canning methods. This is per the National Center for Home Food Preservation guidelines.

There are several ways to do it, including lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar, but whichever one you choose, it must be done for safety reasons!

I won’t get into all that here, nor will I be going over the pros and cons of different canning methods… I’m just covering what you need to know to pick good tomatoes for the process.

Narrow Down Your Choices Based on the Desired End Product

Often it’s the simplest advice that makes the most difference, and ironically it’s this simple advice that is most likely to be overlooked since we are so deluged with information in this modern era.

That simple advice is this: narrow down your choices ahead of time based on what sort of canning operation you’re planning…

Do you just want juice? Look at Super Steak, Big Boy, Celebrity, or Better Boy varieties. How about paste or sauce? The ever-popular Roma or San Marzano would be great choices, as would Viva Italia and Amish Paste.

Are you canning crushed tomatoes? Roma is a good choice again, but Plum Regal and Heinz 1439 might be better.

Lastly, if you’re planning on canning whole, quartered, or halved tomatoes, you might go with Beefsteak, or once again, Roma or San Marzano could be good choices, among many others.

The point is that you’ll cut through a lot of static and suboptimal varieties by zeroing in first based on how you want to can them. Knowing that, then look at the following criteria in the next section.

Criteria for All Canning Operations

No matter what sort of canning operation you’re planning, the following criteria matter for getting great results.

Ripeness

Ripeness is a major factor that will determine how good your canned tomatoes are. Novice canners usually make the mistake of picking tomatoes that are what I call table ripe, meaning slightly yielding, soft, juicy, and ready to cut up and put in a salad or on a sandwich.

That is too far gone for canning, and they will turn mushy during the process. Even if you’re trying to can crushed tomatoes or paste, their flavor will be negatively impacted, but only slightly.

You want to choose tomatoes that are instead fully ripe but still good and firm with a little bit of “blush,” meaning their color has not yet attained full richness.

Likewise, you should choose tomatoes for canning that are all at a consistent stage of ripeness for the best consistency and a truly delicious finished product.

Condition

The condition of the tomatoes, as with everything else you might can, is hugely important if you want them to taste good when you’re opening them up.

Blemishes, bad spots, cracked skins, scalding, and other damage or defects will have a serious negative impact on the quality of your canning job.

Scalding and green spots, along with other abnormalities, particularly will impart an unpleasant bitterness no matter how you are canning them or what you are adding.

As with ripeness above, you want to choose only individual tomatoes that are in excellent condition.

Texture

Canning is hard on your produce and often softens it considerably whether you are water bath or pressure canning.

Because of this, whether you are going for whole or cut tomatoes, or planning on making sauce, you are better off choosing varieties that are on the firm side even when fully ripened.

When you choose a variety or individual tomatoes that are tender and soft, maybe perfect for going on a sandwich, they will take on an unpleasant slimy or gelatinous consistency once they’ve been processed.

Again, this is another mistake that’s really easy for beginning canners to make. Just remember that if you pick a type that is a little bit too hard for eating fresh at the supper table, they will turn out just perfect with pleasant “tooth” after canning.

Flavor

Lastly, don’t forget the obvious! Pick tomatoes that actually taste good as long as they fulfill all of the other qualities above. In my experience, the very best flavor profile for canning tomatoes is a balance of sweetness and acidity.

Sweeter tomatoes often help cut the added acidity that you’ll be packing with from lemon juice or citric acid, and if you choose the right one you might not even need to add a pinch of sugar.

And of course, don’t be afraid to experiment when it comes to flavor. And flavor only, not procedure!

Try a type that you don’t normally grow or buy, and you might be pleasantly surprised at how delicious your canned batch will taste.

Pick a Properly-Sized and Dense Variety for Whole or Halved Tomatoes

When canning whole, halved, or quartered, remember that however you cut them, they must be able to actually fit in your chosen jars.

If you want to can whole tomatoes in smaller jars, you’ll need a smaller variety, whereas the biggest jars can hold some truly huge ones!

Likewise, density is extra important when you’re going this route because you want the whole tomatoes or the pieces to hold together during processing.

Yes, they will get considerably softer as always, but nothing’s worse than popping open a jar of tomato halves only to fish one out and watch it dissolve on the plate because it fell apart. That’s a sure sign of a variety that’s too soft!

Choose a Low-Moisture Type with Small Seed Cavities for Juice, Paste, and Sauces

Although it might seem counterintuitive, if it’s juice, paste, or sauce you are after, it’s critical that you pick tomatoes that have lower moisture, not more.

You don’t want water per se; what you want is the actual essence of the tomato, especially if you are making paste or sauce. High moisture levels mean you’ve got to cook off that moisture longer before you reach the desired texture.

A good guideline is to choose varieties that have very small seed cavities and few seeds because they’ll have more flesh by weight and less of that gelatinous filling that’s always in the cavities.

Your overall yield will be better and far tastier if you remember this tip!