Tomato grinder

[trishy]

What is the best Tomato grinder to use for making sauce?? ya know, so I don't have to do it the hard way! All I want to do is make some spaghetti sauce and salsa. thanks

[LindsayArthurRTR]

I like food mills, but the tomato hopper is THE best. I found one at William Sonoma, but it was REDUNCULOUS !!!! So I'm sticking to the food mill. The medium dye works the best for me.

[trishy]

Thanks! I am a idiot I must say, I forgot I have a KitchenAid mixer, and there are attachment for it for processing food. Just have to go buy the attachments! been wanting the other pieces anyways. hope they work as expensive as they are. thanks again

[LindsayArthurRTR]

I have a grinder attatchment for my mixer, but I'm not sure it would get the seeds and skins out. It works GREAT for grinding meat! There may be problems with it clogging up from the skins. I get that sometimes with the food mill, but I just spin the handle in the opposite direction, and it clears the skins off the holes.

The tomato hopper has a side shoot where the skins and seeds exit the apparatus It is very, VERY cool. My step-mom's mom has one. I want one SOOO bad! She says they are worth the price, but I just can't justify it when I have something that works as nice as the food mill. Plus, I can use the foodmill for things other than tomatoes. The tomato hopper, after all, IS a uni-tasker (I still want one BAD!!!)

[petalfuzz]

I got my food mill at Good will, it was a really rare find. But I have to say I don't use it for tomatoes, as yet. It get clogs up too much on the onions (spaghetti sauce). So it's actually more efficient for me to just peel the tomatoes and keep the seeds in the sauce. I don't mind the seeds.

[Gnome]

trishy,

Thanks! I am a idiot I must say, I forgot I have a KitchenAid mixer, and there are attachment for it for processing food. Just have to go buy the attachments! been wanting the other pieces anyways. hope they work as expensive as they are.

I use the Kitchen Aid with the food grinder attachment to process tomatoes. The usual method is to scald the fruit so the skins loosen, then core and cut into pieces.

Using the same parts that you would use to grind meat, (auger, blade and coarse plate) feed the pieces into the hopper and then catch in a sauce/stock pot. I happen to have the sausage stuffer as well and have found that using the tube makes things a little less messy, but it is not necessary. This, of course, leaves the seeds but, like petalfuzz, I don't mind them. For salsa I don't imagine they would be a problem either.

You can get different attachemnts for your stand mixer, just choose the one that you will get the most use from.

Norm

[cynthia_h]

There are six or so food mills offered by Lehman's at http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen . They're all around $40 or less and none need electricity, so if you're canning and a storm comes through, the seeds will still be removed!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[hit or miss]

We like to use the KA grinder for salsa, grind it all except for a big handful of jalapenos which get sliced into the pot. The food mill gets used for tomato juice.