Tomato Juice Recipe

5 from 63 votes

This Homemade Tomato Juice tastes similar to V8 but is SO much better! Serve as a refreshing drink, an ingredient in recipes, or as a soup base!

Prep Time1

Cook Time25

Total Time1 25

Course: Canning

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Juice, Tomato, Tomato Juice

Servings: quarts

Calories: 268kcal

23 pounds tomatoes 3 1/4 pounds per quart or 23 pounds per canner load of 7 quarts
water approximately 1/4 cup to 1 cup

Wash, core, and remove blemishes from tomatoes.
Cut into small sections.
In a large stock pot, add tomatoes and very little water (at most 1 cup).
Bring to a boil.
Put through colander to remove seeds and skin (see above notes for tips).
Discard seeds and skin.
Return juice to the stock pot and bring to a boil again, adding salt, onion salt, and celery salt according to how many quarts of juice you have yielded.
If canning, pour 2 tablespoons lemon juice into sterilized quart-sized jars to bring up the acidity to make it safe for canning. Add tomato juice, leaving about 1/2" air space at the top of the jar.
Process in a hot water bath canner according to canner directions for 40 minutes for quart jars, 35 minutes for pint jars. For detailed canning instructions, check out our Canning 101 Guide, Water Bath Canning guide, and our guide on How to Can Whole Tomatoes (canning times will be the same).

When canning tomato juice, follow the directions in the recipe card below, but make sure to leave about a half inch of air space at the top.
Store it in a cool, dry place and you'll be able to enjoy this juice for up to two years.
If you are looking to make a LOT of juice (which I like to make at least 25 quarts at a time) you will want to save yourself some frustration by getting a Tomato Strainer. THIS is the EXACT one that I use.
I also have the little attachments, seen here. This will save you a lot of time having to press everything by hand through a colander. I have seen cheaper ones on Amazon and even one that attaches to a Kitchen Aid-- I am sure all of them are great (I am really tempted by the Kitchen Aid one because you don't have to manually turn the crank... if I cave and get it I will let you know). Anything that keeps you from having to do extra work is a winner in my book.