Method of Preserving Tomatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the brine
Dissolve enough coarse sea salt in spring or river water to make it strong enough to float an egg.
Preserve
Select perfectly ripe tomatoes and place them gently in a stone or glazed earthen pot.
Fill the pot with the brine, covering the tomatoes completely.
Cover the pot with a deep plate to press down on the fruit.
Store the pot in a cool place; the tomatoes can be preserved for over a year.
Before cooking
Before cooking, soak the tomatoes in fresh water.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sea salt
- Creates the brine that preserves the tomatoes by drawing out water and inhibiting spoilage microbes.
- Perfectly ripe tomatoes
- The fruit being preserved; ripeness gives the best flavor and texture to the finished tomatoes.
The step that matters
Getting the brine strength right. The brine must be salty enough to float an egg. Too little salt allows spoilage microbes to grow, while the salt concentration is what preserves the fruit over long storage.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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