Canning tomato juice brings back so many good memories of my parents later in their lives. After all of the kids were out of the house my parents had the time to get closer than they ever were when we were all running around. One of the things they always did every summer was make tomato juice together for the winter. Mama would use the juice in chili or vegetable soup but the one thing she loved to use the juice for was Bloody Mary’s. One Christmas I was over helping her wrap all the presents she had for the grandkids and she wanted me to make Bloody Mary’s for her. There was no vodka in their house so Mama sent Daddy out to get some. Unfortunately for us he brought Gin. I tried making the Bloody Mary with the gin but it was just a good waste of great juice! Mama was not happy with Daddy! 🙂
Today I made juice and I swear I could hear Mama and Daddy in my ear, telling me to make sure I don’t use any tomatoes that have bad spots, it will ruin the entire batch or saying make sure you stir the tomatoes while cooking so they don’t stick till they get hot. So comforting to hear their voices in my ear leading me through the process.
Speaking of the process, here you go:
This is what I started out with this morning, some of these had some bad spots, some not ripe enough.
Make sure you wash the tomatoes, you don’t need to peel these, cut the core and any bad spots off the tomatoes. The large tomatoes should be quartered, smaller ones can be cut in half, the very small ones can be left whole. As you cut them up add them to the pan you are using to cook them. 
Cook the tomatoes stirring often to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan as they heat up. If the tomatoes don’t seem to have a lot of juice at the beginning you can add a little bit of water to help with the sticking.
As you are stirring the tomatoes you should mash them around pushing the juice out of them. Let them cook till they are cooked through. 
Remove the pan from the heat. I used my sinks for the workstation today, I had one pan of cooked tomatoes and another pan to put the juice. Place the food mill over the empty pan and pour some of the cooked tomatoes in the mill. Grind and Grind turning the handle to push all the juice out and leave the skins, pulp and seeds. Turn the mill clockwise and then counter-clockwise to get all the juice. Repeat this process till all the cooked tomatoes have been through the mill. 
Discard the skin and seeds left over.
Put your juice back on the burner and let it come to a low boil, I added a little salt to my juice, although I could hear my parents say no no no. They always added a spoonful in each quart jar as they were sealing it. I think it can be done either way.
While the juice is heating up, start heating the water in your canner for the water bath canning method. You should have already washed and sanitized your jars. I used the dishwasher for this today. Mine has a sanitize cycle, if you don’t have that, make sure you wash them and fill them with hot water while waiting to use.
Place the lids in a pan and cover with water bring to a simmer boil and keep hot while filling the jars.
Set up a filling station that works for you. This worked for me, using a measuring cup to pour the juice in the jar.
I placed the jar in a bowl and filled so I could keep spills down.
I added just a little more salt at this step, maybe less than 1/2 teaspoon, my parents would have added a teaspoon here since they didn’t add salt while the juice was cooking. Wipe the rim of the jar, place the seal on top and tighten the ring. Follow these steps until all the juice is in the jars. Your water should be boiling in the canner now. Add your jars and process for about 25-30 minutes. Let the jars rest in the canner for 5 minutes before removing. Test the rings and tighten if needed.
Here’s the finished product! This batch of tomatoes made 14 quarts of tomato juice.
myfamilyrecipes2u 