A large tomato crop requires harvesting for the winter. Tomato juice is a way out of the situation, especially when you are an adherent of a natural home-made product. The drink is useful both in pure form and in a mixture with other juices. Fresh tomato juice is rich in iron, sodium, magnesium and other trace elements. This is a find for those who are on diets, because the calorie content of tomatoes is very low. Only here it is not recommended for people with kidney diseases, because it contains a substance that can exacerbate chronic kidney ailments.
Harvesting tomato juice for the winter begins with the selection of fruits. You need to take only well-ripened, freshly picked, undamaged fruits. It is desirable that they are not overripe, such fruits give poor-quality juice.
Now let's start preparing the workpiece. There is not much tomato juice stocked for the winter, so you need to thoroughly wash the selected few kilograms of fruit. After washing, it would not hurt to dry the tomatoes so that there is no excess water. Then cut the stalks and cut the vegetable into slices. And at the next stage, there are several ways to harvest tomato juice for the winter.
Method number 1. Prepare juice without the use of preservatives and spices
To do this, we pass the slices through a meat grinder or juicer. Then put the chopped tomatoes in an enameled bowl and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon. If not enameled, then stainless steel cookware can be used. We do not fill the container to the brim, as the tomatoes foam very much during cooking. Cook this mass over high heat for one hour, then reduce the heat, add salt and sugar to taste and boil for another five minutes. Hot juice should be poured into hot sterilized jars and quickly rolled up the lids. You need to store such juice in a dark and cool place.
Method number 2. Harvesting tomato juice with spices and seasonings
Such tomato juice is prepared a little differently. We prepare and boil the fruits as in the previous method. Then, ten minutes before the end of cooking, add salt and sugar, and when they dissolve, add vinegar essence or vinegar and other spices. Spicy juice is obtained if you put more pepper in it. Cook for a few more minutes, and then pour the juice into sterilized jars and roll up the lids.
Method number 3, while maintaining the valuable properties of the product
Do not be lazy to prepare tomato juice for the winter, especially in a way that preserves all the beneficial properties. For this, the boiled mass of tomatoes must be immediately removed from the heat and poured into hot liter sterilized jars. Then we sterilize them for twenty minutes and roll up. This juice is stored in the refrigerator.
There are also laborious recipes with rubbing tomatoes through a sieve several times. However, their essence is only to separate all impurities and leave the liquid mass. A juicer can easily cope with this. Much more useful is juice with pulp, which will retain all its beneficial properties and will be much more nutritious. We looked at easy ways to harvest tomato juice. For the winter, this is enough and, most importantly, to find a cool place to store it.