Tomato Puree
Well, the trays of tomatoes ripened up and I had enough home grown tomatoes to can. The Aug/Sept2010 issue of Fine Cooking had a good article on canning tomato puree . I had mostly small little Stupice variety tomatoes that would be a pain to peel and can so I decided to try the puree.
First, I had to buy a food mill. My local general one-stop shopping store did not have them. I looked on the web and Ace Hardware came up so I went over to local Tweedy & Pop Ace Hardware in Shoreline. It was about $30 which was in my price range. I have to admit after using it, I am now wondering if it wouldn’t have been better to get the Oxo brand for $50 but it did the job.
I stemmed, washed and chopped the tomatoes – that took a good hour. Then heated them until they were soft. Next I used the food mill to puree them using the smallest plate. The Stupice have very tiny seeds so there was no way that I would remove them unless I used a chinois. I decided to go with the seed.
Next I sterilized the pint jars and brought the puree to a boil. My puree is very watery since the Stupice are not very meaty. But that will be fine – I’ll just remember to reduce them when I use them. I made 9 pints. And later in the week another batch should ripen for another half dozen pints. Yea! – after a poor tomato year – I’ll be able to get at least a dozen or so pints of tomatoes to use this winter.
Two trays to stem and wash
Chop the tomatoes
Heat until soft
Food Mill
Pureed Tomatoes
Success – 2010 Tomatoes ready for the pantry
I love your jar photo!
A few years ago, I bought a fancy pants food mill (multiple disks, etc) to replace the old one I bought at a yard sale when I was in college. After trying to use it a few times, I resurrected my old one and sold the new one in a yard sale. Yours looks pretty good, but I’ve never used one that wasn’t a pain with tomatoes.
However, I love OXO products, so I may have to go look at that.
Your finished result looks wonderful!
I have a Foley mill. In all honesty, I hate using the damn thing–I feel like I spend more time scraping out skins than I would have spent blanching and peeling. Feh.
I put up sauce from a crate of heirlooms a few weeks ago, a batch of red and a batch of yellow. Took all afternoon, but so delicious.
Chris and Amy – it is good to know that it is not necessarily the brand. I did a second batch and it worked fine – a pain but did the job. I’m going to check with my mother-in-law who also cans to see what type she uses.