i need help, please. for the first time i am growing tomatoes (plum tomatoes) and would like to make sauce to freeze. does anyone have an easy recipe that i can try? do i seed the tomatoes? all the recipes i have looked at say to use a food mill, which i do not have....i just want a simple recipe that cooks on top of the stove. thanks!
I press mine through a food mill to take out the skin and seeds. You could use a sieve that you use to drain things like spaghetti if you don't have a food mill. Or you could pour hot water over the tomatoes and peel the skin off first and then push the pulp through the sieve. I chunk up the tomatoes, cook until soft and the peel is pulling away, maybe 10-15 minutes, then run it through the food mill, then cook down to proper consistency. Only caution, use medium to low heat because it sticks to the pan easily. I have made 34 cups so far this year. It's not a recipe that I follow, just what I have done for years. Hope however you do it that you have great results. It's much better than store bought. dooley
spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce...an unusual answer. Pot of boiling water. Drop a few tomatoes in at a time. Leave them in there for about 2 minutes till the skin splits. Scoop them out put in cold water then peal them. Half them, slide out the seeds, dice and start cooking them. If you don't get the skin off it will curl in your sauce and that is really horrible to eat. Or core and halve, dice and cook tomatoes. Then put them in a blender. That is more nutritional. Then start cooking the mush. Using a food mill will take out the skin, cores, and seeds all at one time. You must cook the tomatoes part of the way first. I use a very tall pot and only fill it half way so it won't splash out so easily. I think the recipes that Pianolady has here are very good but I would call them spaghetti sauce or flavored sauce. When I make tomato sauce I use only use tomatoes. Cooked down to become the thickness I want. I may do a thin one or a thicker sauce or even a paste consistency. From that sauce I can make Mexican flavors or Italian or whatever. If I want chunky I add a pealed diced tomato just crushed toward the end of the cooling time. Barb in Pa.
Also, if you make an X cut on the bottom of the tomato before putting them in the boiling water, then it only takes 30 seconds to 1 minute for the skin to loosen. Take them out and drop them in ice water until cool enough to handle and use the slits to help peel the skin right off almost in one piece.
Thanks Toni, I was cutting corners. Very confusing to the readers. I have made over 250 quarts of sauce in a 3 day span, along time ago. That's why I do use a food mill and don't always add flavors until I am making the meal. Barb in Pa.
If I pay attention I will know what to do with tomatoes in the fall. That's assuming I get more tomatoes than I know what to do with. Said the eternal optimist. Of the approximately 10,000 taste buds on my tongue few if any noticed seeds as the sauce was going past them. They were more interested in the taste. I may have heard one say, "What was that?" but....... Jerry
Now now, Sweet Jerry, We all know it's just not about taste. It also is about texture and weather you have dentures. If a curled up piece of tomato skin goes down my throat I don't like it. Also the seeds get stuck in my teeth and my sisters dentures and that's not pleasurable either, she says. So it's not just all about taste but texture and pleasure. Barb in Pa.
thanks, everyone....i think there are enough suggestions and information to make a decent attempt at it. as usual, you 'guys' are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Annette, I would highly encourage you to borrow or buy a food mill. Preferably the kind with a hopper and auger with a screen. It will make making the sauce sooooooooooo much easier.If you lived closer I would let you borrow mine. Keep checking the thrift stores or maybe even craigslist or garage sales etc. for a used one with a manual, if they are out of your budget for a new one. I have one I picked up at goodwill for $8.00. I was so excited to have one, I use it every fall. I make lots of applesauce (cooked with the peelings ON and then put through the mill) and lots of tomato/vegetable juice.
Good idea carolyn keiper. I see them all the time and will look out for one starting tomorrow. Annette, If I find one I will give it to you and send it to you free of charge to a future fellow preserver...LOL Annette asking such questions reminds me of when I started. Trying to lift hot jars out of a water bath without jar lifters. That's so hard and dangerous. It would have been so nice to have had this kind of help some 40 years ago. Barb in Pa.
will be cruising the thrift stores for sure!...i like to ask alot of questions before i start a project that way i get feedback before i begin, i know that experience does matter and all your suggestions will help me find my way! i can't wait...tomatoes are flowering and if the stupid woodchuck stays away, will be in tomato heaven!!!!!(waretrop...you are a sweetheart!)
Annette, Have you done any canning before? if not there are, as Barb stated, tools needed for the process. Don't "make do" with make shift ones. The real tools are not that expensive to purchase new...ESPECIALLY the jar lifter. That is very necessary for taking the jars out of the hot water/canner. If you can find a garage sale where someone cleaning out their canning supplies you'll get a jackpot for sure. I wish I could hit a few more sales than I do, but I just don't have the time doing farmers markets 3 days aweek, otherwise I also would be looking for one for you. I have a victorio brand and I love it. I don't think they make them anymore though. If I am not mistaken I think the factory burned and they did not rebuild to make this item again . My In-Laws have a Squeezo brand that works okay. Maybe a newer one would work better as they have plastic augers, not metal like this one. But this is still better than nothing. By the way.....sprinkle hot pepper, of any kind, heavily around your garden. Hopefully this will help deter those pesky varmints. I have a lady at one of my farmers markets who sells Jalepeno pepper powder for the garden. It is supposed to repel ALLLLLLLL the free loader varmints from your garden. Maybe it would help to sprinkle it directly on a wet plant so as the water evaporates it sticks to the leaves and they don't want the gourmet flavor of the peppers.
carolyn keiper, I was going to find her a manual food mill that sits on top of a pot. I see them all the time and I am still using my first one after 35 years. Barb in Pa.
