When prepping, the first step most people is to buy canned food for storage. Nothing wrong with starting here, I did myself. There is one commercially canned vegetable that does not store well on the shelf in prepping supplies. Tomatoes have too much acid to last well in a can, and they end up spoiling. The can then domes up:
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You can see doming here on this can. All types of commercially canned tomatoes seem to have this problem. So if you decide to prep with 'off the shelf' spaghetti sauce, be sure and buy it in a glass jar!
The way not to prep:
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These cans are not for prepping, so don't worry, they were for the homeless meal! But Do Not put this on the shelf...when you need it, it will be spoiled.
Fortunately, tomatoes are easy to preserve at home:
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My preferred method is to dehydrate sliced tomatoes (this includes sun dried), put them into a canning jar, and pull a hard vacuum on them. This method allows them to be stored for decades with little loss in nutrition. They are moisture independent, and temperature extremes do not affect them. I still store them in the dark, just to keep them as fresh as possible. I find that 8 pounds of cherry tomatoes will fit in a one quart jar, so it's space frugal too. As a side note, once dehydrated, mylar bags and oxygen absorbers (if you have the equipment); will preserve the tomatoes as well as the jars, except for mice problems. I will address pest problems in another post, but vermin problems should always be in the back of your mind!
Another good way to preserve tomatoes is by pressure canning (or open kettle if you're good). It must be stored in temperate conditions in the dark, but I know of some that were stored this way for 40 years, that were still editable! Light will rob vitamins, and they can freeze; but this is the least expensive way to preserve tomatoes long term, as it's the simplest equipment.
The last good way to store tomatoes is by freeze drying. This equipment is expensive, but retains most of the nutrients intact. The product can be stored like the dehydrated tomatoes are stored, and is long term stable. I haven't seen a good comparison of nutrition, between the dehydrated and the freeze dried tomatoes; but I suspect they are similar!
I have deliberately omitted the freezing option, because the grid can't be counted on when really prepping! Anything in a freezer must be eaten, or lost in short order. As a result, freezing is not a viable prepping storage method in my humble opinion!
Do you have another preferred method of preservation? Please add it in the comments.
Similarly, if these things are to be bought for a long period of time, it is very important that they are of good quality, otherwise the boxes that are in them will deteriorate in the same way as what is inside. It also gets damaged.
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They work best in stew or another slow cooked pot food (chili, spaghetti sauce etc.); where they can be rehydrated thourghly.
You must blanch the vegetables before drying, or enzyme action will continue to toughen them post processing. If you use frozen vegetables from the store, they have been blanched in boiling water already! This is a cheat I use when I find a real deal on frozen vegetables. Otherwise it's like chewing leather, including the taste. Blanching is required for freezing too!
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Here's a batch of mixed frozen vegetables I found a case lot deal on. They will be vacuumed from here, and go into long term storage. I like the jars, because I can use some out of the jar, and re-vacuum the remaining food; with no loss.
The vacuum tool I bought off of eBay, and it fits over a jar with a lid only. A tube connects the assembly to a vacuum pump. When the pump removes the air, the lid seals down when the pump is removed. I use a refrigeration type pump, but they have kitchen models; and one Lady, Uses a hand pump designed to bleed brakes. How You get the vacuum is not critical. The kitchen style pulls 14 inches of mercury, mine pulls over 28; while the hand unit pulls about 22. The better the vacuum, the longer it will store safely.
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Tomatoes are a fruit, not a vegetable, so they don't need blanching. Short immersion in boiling water (blanching) stops the enzymes on the vegetables, so they don't continue to process the food. Corn and beans are the worst.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/blanching-vegetables-before-freezing-1327660
https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/vegetable-blanching-directions-and-times-home-freezer-storage
Here's a couple of links on blanching...pay attention to the rapid cooling after the boiling water! It says that steam can be used for blanching, I hadn't considered that; so I learned some blanching information today myself.
I agree on the need for prepping posts, knowledge is survival. Let me know, but it's hard to do a good post on 'schedule'; but I'll make the attempt!
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Curses! My cases of tomato paste and sauce are going to have to go into my meal plans quickly then.
Thanks!
Edit: smoking is a good way to preserve meats as well. In my youth my father cold smoked salmon that had been soaked in a slurry of brown sugar and rock salt for ~3 days over alder until it became hard as a rock and translucent. In this way it would keep on a shelf at room temperature for ~6 months. If it got a skin of mold on it, you could just shave that off with a knife, like cheese. At least, in my poverty stricken neck of the woods we would.
You couldn't chew it, because it was indeed rock hard, but you could stuff a flake or so in your cheek and suck on it, which would eventually moisten it until you could, and the whole time you'd enjoy the delicious flavor. The natives called it Squaw Candy, and I can see why, because soaking it in a sugar slurry for days really made it sweet, the salt gave it electrolytic restorative properties, and the alder smoke just makes salmon delicious.
The sugar and salt also act as preservatives. Smoke houses were ubiquitous on homesteads back in the day for these reasons, since people didn't have refrigerators. The miasma of smoke keeps bugs away, so a smoldering fire of fragrant fruitwood or species like alder not only add flavor and carcinogens, but preserve food in the absence of refrigeration.
