Wash tomatoes. Dip in boiling water 30–60 seconds or until skins split, then dip in cold water. Slip off skins, remove cores, and leave whole or halve.
Add required bottled lemon juice or citric acid to each jar. Add salt if desired.
Raw pack: fill hot jars with raw tomatoes and cover with boiling water, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
Hot pack: cover tomatoes with water, boil gently 5 minutes, then fill jars with tomatoes and cooking liquid, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
Boiling-water process pints 40/45/50/55 minutes and quarts 45/50/55/60 minutes at 0–1,000/1,001–3,000/3,001–6,000/above 6,000 ft. Pressure-canning alternatives must follow the NCHFP table exactly.