blender tomato sauce (doesn't separate out!)

[patandchickens]

In case anyone is as lazy as me (I loathe peeling tomatoes, and adding them gradually to the kettle so that the sauce does not separate into solids plus watery portion is too time-consuming and annoying for me), this is working real well for me this year, I believe I am a permanent convert:

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Cut the stem portion out of the tomatoes. Seed by cutting in half equatorially (so you have a top and bottom half) then popping the seeds and gel out with a table knife. Chickens like it.

Put halved tomatoes into a blender, til blender container is half full. Blend. Put in a pot and bring to a boil (won't take long b/c there's so little in the pot yet). While it is heating, do another half-blender-container's worth of halving and seeding.

Once the pot is boiling, blend the second container and dump it in. Begin halving and seeding and blending the next installment -- by the time it's puree'd, the pot will be back at the boil.

Keep doing this til you run out of tomatoes or room in the pot.

Then boil gently til it is thickened down enough for your tastes (I reduce by about 1/3-1/2). Eat, freeze or waterbath-can.

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The advantage is that it does not involve peeling (even my cheapo blender reduces the skin to just teensy tinsy bits) and automatically results in your adding the tomatoes to already-boiling liquid immediately after they've been cut (which is what it takes to inactivate the enzymes that cause separation of the watery fraction)

Actually you can do this with cherry tomatoes too, just pull the stem off and halve and chuck into blender. Result will have seeds in it, but Oh Well.


Pat

 

[hoosier]

That is my kind of canning!
I have often thought about trying that, but I guess I am not as adventurous as you.

My chickens like the seeds and gel part of the tomato best.

 

[TanksHill]

That's the only way I have ever done tomato sauce. I have a recipe that includes some herbs and such. Turns out great. I have also reduced it wayyyyyy down and made paste. Heavy herbs and reduction gives you a great pizza sauce. Yum!!!

 

[mlynd]

oh i will have to try this

 

[lalaland]

so thats why sometimes my canned tomato sauce is all watery! didn't know that. I'll definitely try the blender method.
thanks!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I also do the blender method. I just keep the pot simmering and keep blending until I am done with the batch of tomatoes. Sometimes I add seasoning and sometimes I reduce it to paste or near paste.
Who needs to heat up the house with boiling water to get those skins off? Now that I have a pressure canner, I'll be able to add carrots and stuff too.

 

[framing fowl]

How long does it take to reduce the sauce that way? I did a batch the old way (Peeling) and it literally took me 5 hours to reduce it to 1/2. I was so frustrated I vowed to find another way. Now I just strain mine through an old t-shirt lined colander for almost instant reduction.

 

[patandchickens]

How long does it take to reduce the sauce that way?

Maybe an hour and a half or 2 hours for me, last time I did it. It depends a LOT on the pan you use, though. Actually for small (non-canning) quantities of sauce, the most efficient thing is to use a giant frying pan. The wider the pan, the more surface area to evaporate from, in proportion to a given volume of sauce. I try not to have more than 4-5" or so depth of sauce in the pot (at *maximum), even if it means I have to run multiple burners (for multiple pots).

Now I just strain mine through an old t-shirt lined colander for almost instant reduction.

Yup, that works too... I just like the flavor better when it is simmered, plus I am probably-stupidly reluctant to lose whatever fraction of nutrients are in the clear liquid that gets poured off. (Although, I usually use that in soup or stock, so it is not *wasted*... what can I say, I am just not prepared to be logical about *everything* <g>)

Pat

 

[hoosier]

When I have the freezer space, I just freeze the tomatoes. Then, I take them out during the winter when I don't mind heating up the kitchen. When they thaw, I pour off all the clearish liquid before I start cooking them down. The chickens love that as well.

 

[Emerald]

We get bacterial spot on the skins here at the end of the season and so I always peels the maters before saucing or stewing.
But I take the seed/gel out and cook it down in a smaller pot right next to the batch and when it boils down about 2/3rds I just strain the small pot of seeds/gel and then it goes back in the pot.
I also do this when I make the stewed tomatoes as I don't care for that many seeds in my tomatoes-they tend to get bitter when they get too hot. I also skim a bit of the water from the chunks and veggies as they are cooking down and add to the pot of seeds/gel as I can get a quick cook down/roiling boil and then strain it and add back to the chunks that way the chunks/veggies hold up better, but are surrounded by rich almost like tomato sauce-I don't get any separation of my liquids.
My mom thinks that I put too much work into my tomato sauce and stewed maters but they come out so much better than the store bought ones. Plus cooking is probably one of the only things I am a bit OCD about! lol
Cuz you never know when one of those famous TV chefs might have to borrow a jar of sauce! I want it to be the best!! lol