Question about making tomato sauce.

[gixxerific]

Okay I have the canner I have the tomatoes I even have the Blue Book. What I don't have is a food mill or other mechanical device to remove the skins and seeds.

I thought about removing as many seeds as I could before cooking them thus saving seed at the same time. Thought about freezing since that makes the skins easier to remove. These may be hair brained ideas but.....

How would you do it without a Mill or anything?

Thank you very much. This is my first time I have a ton of questions.

Dono

[cynthia_h]

1) Skins: blanch the tomatoes. The skins will start to split, and when you plunge the tomatoes into iced (or at least very cold) water, you'll be able to remove the skins easily.

2) Seeds: Cut the now peeled tomatoes crosswise (across the "equator"). There's no genteel way to describe this procedure, but smoosh out the jelly and seeds, making them "splut" into a bowl or other container. Do NOT compost the seeds, unless your compost pile runs pretty hot.

Chop them up if you want, or just put them into the cooking pot and take off!

I've done this; it took quite a while with the Romas we grew that year. Kind of on the small side, but TONS OF THEM.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[gixxerific]

Thanks Cynthia I was expecting you. How easy is that, I always make things out to be harder than they are.

I have had a rotaion of 10 - 12 cups of seed rotating every 3 day's for a month and half or better. So I will be saving seed as I am doing this.

[gixxerific]

here is another. I want to make the seasoned sauce in the Ball Book. That calls for 45 lb.s of tomatoes. Though I could do 45 I would probably have to freeze some till I had that much. Can I safely just half every item in the recipe and be good?

[cynthia_h]

Forty-five (!) pounds of tomatoes! Wow. That would be a very large, very successful garden. I think we grew five (5) pounds last year, but then again we don't have very good tomato conditions.

Yes, shrinking recipes is usually fine. Enlarging them can get tricky, especially in baking; not all ingredients behave the same in large batches. Take a sample taste before committing to the canning jars, though: let a spoonful cool on a saucer or in a small bowl and see how you like it and how you *think* you'll like it after the seasoning settles.

Bon appetit! Buon appetito! Proveche! etc.

Cynthia

[gixxerific]

Thank again Cynthia.

Just went out in the garden, cancel what I said before I could probably pick 50 lbs easy. I haven't picked in a day or two. Not to mention I have 1 1/2 baskets of toms already up stairs.

Have you seen my tomato progress thread? My plants are going bonkers.

[cynthia_h]

Have you seen my tomato progress thread? My plants are going bonkers.

I try not to follow those threads; they're too discouraging for me, frankly. While I'm happy that we have such successful gardeners, all my endeavors and knowledge only get me maybe 18 little Sungolds, one at a time, over several weeks, or a dozen or two dozen yellow pear tomatoes. Not enough heat, even in the rent-a-box, to grow anything larger than a medium Roma.

Even my Stupice (a cool-weather tomato) is stalling out on me this year. So cook away, gixx! I'm probably going to make Chinese-style plum sauce out of bought stone fruit and peppers, just to scratch the canning itch....

Cynthia

[gixxerific]

You want to scratch the canning itch come on over and give me a hand. I sure could use one.

[applestar]

I often think how fun it would be if we could do stuff like that -- canning workshop/party, variety tasting, etc. with forum members

[gixxerific]

One more thing, for now that is.

I just got a chep food mill. I tried the blanching/deseeding thing it would take all day.

So I have a food mill if I was to use it with a recipe that calls for X number of lbs would I weigh the tomatoes before putting in the food mill? Another thing is I am not sure I will have the correct number of lbs can I process what I have and freeze till like maybe next weekend than thaw it out and add to the rest I get?

Many thanks

[applestar]

Did the food mill come with three plates with different size holes? I like the medium hole disk because the largest one lets all the seeds and bits of skin through and the smallest one seem to take forever. The medium one lets only some smaller (and usualy immature and tender) seeds through, processes fairly steadily, and leaves all the skin in the hopper.

Also, I drain the tomatoes and the juice that came out first in a separate bowl because if you mix all that liquid into the foodmilled tomatoes, it gets all watery and take forever to cook down.

[cynthia_h]

One more thing, for now that is.

I just got a chep food mill. I tried the blanching/deseeding thing it would take all day.

So I have a food mill if I was to use it with a recipe that calls for X number of lbs would I weigh the tomatoes before putting in the food mill? Another thing is I am not sure I will have the correct number of lbs can I process what I have and freeze till like maybe next weekend than thaw it out and add to the rest I get?

Many thanks

You may already have put up your tomatoes, but...yes, weigh the produce before starting to work on it. The recipes are standardized for "raw" produce--still has skins on, seeds inside, etc.

Cynthia

[gixxerific]

Thanks again that is what I thought but I
try not to assume anything.

Needless to say it was a total bust today. I am very pissed off right now. No sauce but I do have a big bowl of pico de gallo. I had to do something with all the mators I picked. I'd rather not think about it.

Time for a bullet sandwhich.

[Ohio Tiller]

I often think how fun it would be if we could do stuff like that -- canning workshop/party, variety tasting, etc. with forum members

My system is portable I am in!

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