What speed to use on kitchenaid food strainer?

[Emerald]

I can not find the instructions that came with the food strainer and this is my first time using ti for tomatoes.
Can anyone tell me the best speed to have the machine on? it is a pro600 in case that is important.
Thanks for any help or helpful hints in advance..

 

[Mickey328]

I generally set mine on a low to medium speed. I listen to it and if it seems to be working too hard, I "throttle it back" some. If it's going too slowly and doesn't seem to be straining, I crank it up a bit.

Although, I confess I quit using mine for tomatoes...the holes are so darned small you end up with hardly any pulp and lots of liquid. For juice that's great, but for canning tomatoes or sauce, not so much. We got a Roma Food Mill from Lehman's a couple months ago and ordered the salsa kit...the holes are much bigger and I like it a LOT! I strain after running the 'maters through, and use the stuff IN the strainer for sauce and the stuff that runs through for juice. Then, I run all the peels and such through the Champion juicer. By the time I'm done, there's not much left other than practically dry leavings.

We did 3 boxes of romas yesterday in this manner, and also juiced some beets, onions, celery, parsley, basil, carrots and zucchini to add to the juice for a vegetable cocktail sort of thing. Took DH and me about 4 hours to process it; it was awesome!

 

[Emerald]

Thanks! that was what I was gonna do if I didn't find any info..
I have over a bushel to do today.. but I got up way late due to having had the 4 year old and 1 year old grand kids all weekend.. guess Gamma needed some sleep!
I have several older squeezo type strainers and just don't have the arm strengh to use them..
Another friend told me to run the squeezed stuff thru the strainer another time and you will get more out.
I bought it for apple sauce but got no apples this year due to the beautiful 80's for two weeks in March this year..

 

[Mickey328]

That happens around here fairly often too...early warm weather...bring on the blossoms...then a hard freeze and kill 'em all

Seems like the first time around you get the skins out and most of the pulp/juice, but I absolutely run them through more than once. After the food mill, I ran most of mine through the juicer twice and was still getting at least a little dribble. Out of 3 boxes, we ended up with 3 gallons of juice (of course some of that is the other vegetables) and I'm now processing the sauce part...7 quarts in the canner now and I would venture another at least 5 to go. I'm jazzed!

 

[Emerald]

Well I got all the prep work done today.. got the jars and gear all washed up and got all the veggie that I want in cleaned and chopped and washed some of the tomatoes.. I am so used to dip and peel that I'm not sure I want to run them thru skin and all..!
I have back problems so this doing them in stages and bits may work out for me.. not as hard as standing there all day peeling and chopping all the vegg.
But I did dig my potatoes today too. kinda disappointing. not as many as I would have expected. must have been too hot this summer.
I have a different bunch/type still green so hoping they are bigger..

 

[Emerald]

Well the question may have been mute anyhoo.. can't get the darn meat grinder to come apart to put the other metal shaft in and can't find the exact size socket to get that lock nut off. Holy moly. if it ain't one thing it is another. sheesh..

Never mind.. boychild got it apart.. I was over thinking it and he popped it apart without having to take the nut off.. OMGOODNESS They need to make their manuals online more "For Dummies" than not..

 

[Emerald]

Okay.. just ran the first big bowl thru the strainer and then ran the skin/seed thru again and it is almost as good as when I run them thru my chinoux with the wooden pusher. but less work on my arms. it took longer to cut them then it did to run thru the machine. so boy and I are going to run shifts.. haha. .he washes the tomatoes and I cut them and then we both run them thru the machine. at least he is willing to help. and the changing up of jobs should be less stressful on my back.. (at least I hope so. .

 

[Mickey328]

I'm sure just changing positions will help! DH, bless his heart did all the grinding for me and by the end, even his arms were getting tired. Just prepped it all on Sunday afternoon; canned all afternoon yesterday. Not bad at all...ended up with 14 jars of juice and 19 jars of tomatoes. That's tomatoes done for this year.

Stopped by the market today for some canning lids and dang if they didn't have some great sales on meat and chickens! So, now I have plums, apples, carrots, beef and chicken to can. Also picked up some nice beef soup bones, so I'll make some good stock before I can. Hope it's all done in time to work on the yard and garden...just not enough time in a day it seems

 

[Emerald]

Well some of the tomatoes that I picked up are ripe but super meaty and hard compared to the 1/2 bushel of my Rutgers that I grew. They are Roma and I decided to grab them as I didn't plant that many not sure if I would be up to it or not this year(knee surgery in April) There is about another bushel out there just starting to turn orangy and should be ripe by next weekend.
I figured that I may as well can a lot..
Well they (romas) gummed up the screen so I had to clean it.. so I now have them chopped and in a smaller stock pot and I'm cooking them just a bit and they are running thru the strainer quite well no more gumming up. but as clumsy as I am this may be a tricky thing! haha..
But my goop/seeds/skins coming out are very very dry by the second pass. only seeds and a bit of the skin. so it is all good. and there is still enuf for the chickens to gobble up!
I've plenty of pulp too.. it is not much different than my old squeezo hand crank strainer. except my arms are not as tired!
Thanks for all your help Mickey!
P/S.. sure looks like your work is all cut out for ya!

 

[Mickey328]

I prefer a chunkier sort of sauce so I'd always done the "dip in hot water, cool, peel, cut into cubes and cook down" method. I still like the result but oh my...it was SO much work and took SO long! If I'd done the 5 boxes we got that way it would have taken the better part of a month and I'd be exhausted! With the mill, it does come out "smaller" than I'd like but that's a small price to pay, IMO. I only had to cut a few tomatoes from the first 2 boxes because they were too big to go thru the chute. ALL of the ones in the last 3 boxes fit just fine. We put them in a big cooler and hosed them down to get the dirt off, then just filled the bowl and cranked. Pulp and seeds, but no skins. Awesome!

Not knowing when to say stop, I went out today and gathered a ton of other stuff to can, LOL. Stopped at the market to get some lids...they didn't have any but they had an excellent sale on beef and chicken so I got scads...and that will all need to be canned. A friend of a friend gave us about 15 lbs of carrots, also got a couple pounds of mushrooms for free, and another 10 or 15 pounds of apples. LOL, I know what I'm going to be doing with my days off for the next long while!