Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter: For the Love of Canning
This post is sponsored by the makers of Ball® home canning products.*
One of the best things about growing and preserving your own produce is getting to discover the nuances of flavor in seemingly similar varieties of fruit and veggies. I started this exploration as child when I would gather ingredients from the garden and attempt (big emphasis on *attempt* here) to create tasty sandwiches after soccer practice. My mother was very patient with me having fun in the kitchen, but we did go through a ridiculous number of tins of tuna when I tried to ‘perfect’ the best blend. Note to self: celery salt instead of fresh celery and rosemary are not great pairings for tuna salad! The same goes for marigold flower petals.
And while I still have an affinity for edible florals, I did become more proficient in the kitchen and more refined in my palate, I realized that the subtle undertones in fresh produce are really what shine through when you take a recipe from good to great. And that’s what makes this Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter from the 38th Edition Ball® Blue Book Guide to Preserving so delicious! Color aside, using yellow tomatoes paired with honey is a perfect match- yellow tomatoes are sweeter, milder, and less acidic than their red counterparts. So, when you take that that sweetness and amp it up, you create a beautiful flavor that toes the line between sweet and savory. This tomato butter is incredible fresh (I love it paired with whipped cottage cheese on toast) on hot mornings, but my favorite way to use it is popping open a jar in the middle of winter and tasting summer and sunshine when you need it most!
Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter Ingredients
Yield: About 3 Half-Pint Jars
5 Pounds Yellow Tomatoes (about 15 to 20 medium)
2 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Honey
1 1- x 1/4-inch Piece Fresh Ginger, Peeled
1 Tablespoon Whole Allspice
2 Sticks Cinnamon
2 Tablespoons Bottled Lemon Juice or ½ Teaspoon Citric Acid
Choosing Yellow Tomatoes.
I’ve found that while you can use any yellow tomatoes that you have on hand, that medium-sized beef-steak type tomatoes are the easiest to work with! I’ve found that some of the most common varieties that match this description are Lemon Boy, Yellow Brandywine Heirlooms, and Spark’s yellow. I also personally grow lots of Sungold and Yellow Pear tomatoes which are cherry tomatoes but SO sweet that they’re worth the extra effort to add them into the mix!
Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter Prep
Wash tomatoes under cold running water; drain. To peel tomatoes, blanch in boiling water 30 to 60 seconds. Immediately transfer to cold water.
Tip: While you can pop tomatoes in whole, to help the peeling process I like to score a small X in the blossom end of the tomato, blanch, and then plunge into ice water. The skin will come off nearly whole!
Peel and core tomatoes. Cut tomatoes into quarters and remove seeds. Tie ginger and spices in a spice bag.
Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter Method
Heat tomatoes at a simmer, in a large saucepan until soft. Purée mixture using an electric food strainer or food mill.
Measure 2 quarts of tomato pulp; return tomato pulp to saucepan. Add sugar, honey, and the bottled lemon juice or citric acid, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add spice bag.
Cook at a gentle boil over medium heat until tomato mixture is thick enough to mound on a spoon, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Remove from heat. Remove spice bag.
TIP: Mounding on a spoon means that when you scoop a spoonful of the butter it creates a little mound on top of the spoon instead of just what the concave part of the spoon can hold. But personally, I like my butter a bit thicker, so I use the thick edge of a spatula to draw a line through the butter. When the mixture is thick enough it takes time to refill the space left behind by the spatula’s scrape!
Prep the Canning Jars
Before we start to cook the Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter, let’s get our clean jars prepped for water bath canning! I am using the Ball® EasyCanner Electric Water Bath Canner, which is so easy, just set and forget! However, if you are using a traditional canning pot, we’ll preheat our jars the same way. Place a canning rack on the bottom of your pot and fill the canning pot about halfway with water. Then using a jar lifter, fill the bottom of the pot with half-pint jars. We are using three jars for this recipe, but be sure to fill the entirety of your pot with jars so they don’t shift while canning- this can lead to chips!
Once all jars are in place, fill the canning pot until there is one to two inches of water completely covering the jars. Preheat the jars to a simmer (about 180ºF.)
Tip: an easy way to know when your jars are getting close to a simmering temperature is to look for the jars to be covered with tiny bubbles! As these are pre-heating, cook the pickles. Why? Rule of thumb when it comes to canning is that hot ingredients go in hot jars and cold ingredients go in cold jars. This prevents thermal shock and chipping!
Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter: Fill
Ladle hot butter into a hot jar, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Clean jar rim. Center lid on jar and adjust band to fingertip-tight. Place jar on the rack in boiling-water canner with simmering water (180°F). Repeat until all jars are filled.
Once all jars are secured in the boiling-water canner, make sure that there is at least an inch of water covering the tops of the jars, cover canner, and bring the water to a rolling boil. Once the water has come to a boil, start your processing time timer. At sea level and up to 1000 feet the processing time is ten minutes, but this needs to be adjusted for altitude if you’re higher! Here in Denver at 5280 feet I need to add an extra ten minutes. I’ll pop the Ball® Home Canning altitude chart below:
| Altitude Feet | Increase Processing Time |
| 1,001- 3,000 | 5 Minutes |
| 3,001- 6,000 | 10 Minutes |
| 6,001- 8,000 | 15 Minutes |
| 8,001-10,000 | 20 Minutes |
After the jars are finished processing, turn off the heat and remove the canning pot’s cover. Let jars rest for five minutes. (If you are using the Ball® EasyCanner, this countdown starts on its own!) Then carefully, one by one, use the jar lifter to place the jars on another, clean cutting board covered with a kitchen towel to rest for twelve hours. As you are pulling the jars out of the pot, be sure to keep them upright (they may even have water on the lid) to not disturb the lid seals. Label and store until you need sunshine in winter!
Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Wash tomatoes under cold running water; drain. To peel tomatoes, blanch in boiling water 30 to 60 seconds. Immediately transfer to cold water.
- Peel and core tomatoes. Cut tomatoes into quarters and remove seeds. Tie ginger and spices in a spice bag.
- Heat tomatoes at a simmer, in a large saucepan until soft. Purée mixture using an electric food strainer or food mill.
- Measure 2 quarts of tomato pulp; return tomato pulp to saucepan.
- Add sugar, honey, and the bottled lemon juice or citric acid, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add spice bag.
- Cook at a gentle boil over medium heat until tomato mixture is thick enough to mound on a spoon, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Remove from heat. Remove spice bag.
- Working with one jar at a time, fill the preheated pint jars with the hot butter leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles. Clean jar rim. Center lid on jar and adjust band to fingertip-tight. Place jar on the rack in boiling-water canner with simmering water (180°F). Repeat until all jars are filled.
- Water must cover jars by 1 inch. Adjust heat to medium-high, cover canner, and bring water to a rolling boil. Process half-pint jars 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off heat and remove cover. Let jars cool 5 minutes.
- Remove jars from canner; do not retighten bands if loose. Cool 12 hours. Check seals. Label and store jars.
*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post that is part of an ongoing partnership with the Fresh Preserving Division of Newell Brands. They have provided jars, equipment and monetary compensation. All thoughts and opinions expressed remain my own. Ball® and Ball logotype TMs Ball Corporation, used under license.
Photography by Becky Duffyhill
