Peeling tomatoes or soft fleshed fruit

Since I post a lot of recipes about canning, and several I have posted called for peeled tomatoes, I thought it prudent to show you how to peel tomatoes.  I swear, I'm not kidding!
    
                  
             
It sounds very odd to talk about peeling tomatoes, however it is very simple and the same technique can be used to peel other soft fleshed fruits like peaches before canning them! You must peel these fruits before you can them because the peels will get tough and are not at all tasty. I will be using tomatoes for canning as my example here, but remember, you can use this with other items as well! I generally peel the day before I do my canning.  I find that trying to do it all at the same time is a bit much, especially with other things going on and I just break it down.

You will need: a large stock pot, a plastic slotted spoon, a large bowl of ice water, containers to store your peeled fruit in, and a paring knife.

To peel them, wash the tomatoes in cool water and bring a stock pot (about 4 quart size) filled about 3/4 of the way with water just to a boil.  Set your bowl of ice water next to the stove, and your storage container to the other side of that. I also like to have a smaller bowl handy to use as a garbage bowl.  I find this easier than the trash can, especially when canning.  As the water gets just to the point of boiling, drop a few tomatoes gently into the water, within about 60 seconds, the skin on the tomato will split.  When that happens use the slotted spoon to dip the tomato out of the pot and settle it into the ice water.  If the skin has not split within a minute, poke the tomato with a sharp knife and that will force the skin to split.  One minute is the longest you want to leave the tomatoes in the hot water because you do not want to cook them, only to loosen the skin on them.

Once you have your split-skinned fruit in the ice water bath, you can usually just slide the skin right off of it.  Sometimes, you may need to use the edge of the paring knife just to get a hold of it.  The ice water is important for two reasons.  One- have you ever tried to hold on to a tomato right after it has come out of near boiling water?  And two- it stops the heat process and keeps the fruit from cooking.  Now at this point, I drop the skin into my garbage bowl and the tomato into my storage container.  Don't cut the fruit up yet.  You have enough going on!

Once you have all the fruit peeled, store it in the refrigerator until the next day when you can get it all processed.  Make sure you cover it and seal it tightly, and don't let it freeze accidentally overnight ( I know my fridge has it's cold spots!)

Coming soon, I'll be sharing how you actually can your own tomatoes!