Today I'm canning tomato juice. Last year I canned very little juice as we were living in a camper during the majority of the canning season. ( Long story that I'll tell some other time. ) Anyway, at the time I thought it would make little difference because tomato juice is fairly inexpensive in the store. Little did I know how wrong I was.
We use tomato juice a number of different ways. I use it to make homemade tomato soup, chili, spanish rice, and a number of different casseroles and we also enjoy drinking it chilled as a snack. Sadly the tomato juice from the store tastes VERY different from the home canned variety.
I soon realized that my home version of tomato juice is really more like a V8 juice. I put onions, green peppers, and some seasonings in my tomato juice. The store variety has tomatoes, water, and salt listed as the ingredients. Also it has a weird metallic taste to it that I can't identify, but do not enjoy. We even tried the kind that comes in a plastic bottle, and it STILL tasted of metal.
Anyway, my conclusion is that the extra effort that it takes to can tomato juice is well worth it for our family.
What do you can that can't be compared to "store bought?"
