Canning: Yellow Tomato Preserves

From the same plants that provided a bounty of under-ripe fruit for pickled green tomatoes came delicious yellow pear tomatoes, a tiny variety of bell-shaped fruits that were ripe and ready to be used. Pulling a recipe from page 198 of the Farm Journal Freezing & Canning Cookbook: Prized Recipes from the Farms of America, Revised Edition, I jumped into action with the recipe for tomato preserves.

Simmer the tomatoes, lemon, water and sugar for a long time and then strain the goods through a mesh sieve to remove tomato skins. This seemed like an easier approach than blanching and peeling each tiny tomato, and since I qaudrupled the recipe to 4 pounds of tomatoes... well, I took it easy. I added back in the slices of lemon for the maximum effect of the pectin, processed a bit longer, and then hot-packed and water bath canned the entire batch.
Total: 4 pounds of tomatoes + 1 whole lemon. = 10 half pint jars

PS. Mom says it's delicious as a glaze for chicken and fish. Also, why does naming something jam, ketchup, etc immediately define what it should be and how you will feel about it? If I call this tomato jam it's bad, tomato preserves it's intriguing. Likewise, rhubarb ketchup = no good. Rhubarb chutney (not so different in spices, vinegar, sugar, etc), good.