Due to a large harvest of tomatoes, I have perfected the art of getting agood, slow simmered tomato sauce with very little work, and no standing over the stove stirring for hours:

1. Clean, trim, and core tomatoes. 2. Slice and put through juicer, then recombine pulp and juice. (you can use a blender or other food processor, or a hand grinder of some sort. 3. Place puree into a crock pot and turn on high, covered. After it gets to a boil, remove lid and cover with a cheesecloth, grease splatter guard, or some steam-venting cover that will keep bugs and dust out. Stir every hour or so, until thickened to your liking and season. (If you're off grid, a solar oven would probably work if the steam didn't build up too much.) If you go to bed or leave the house for several hours in the middle of the cooking, just put on the lid and turn it down. 4. Ladle it out and can or freeze according to your favorite recipe.

I have found this to substantially speed up my productivity by allowing me to do other things while it cooks, and it doesn't heat up the kitchen anywhere near as bad as the stove would, although the smell sure makes you hungry. I find that it sometimes sticks a little on the crockpot above the sauce itself, where it has boiled away. It's pretty easy to clean up, though, and would be prevented by more frequent stirring. (It can be a little hit and miss with me. I'd rather soak the crock that fuss with it and since it is only the browning of sauce left high and dry in the crock, it doesn't flavor the rest of the sauce if you don't stir it in.)

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 09, 2000

Answers

Soni, do you leave skins and seeds? I have a Champion juicer, and your way seems much easier than mine. I always detested peeling and seeding! I'll give it a try. Thanks!

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@webtv.net), August 09, 2000.

Soni, I used to do similar to what you do. I'd put them through my champion juicer, then put them in the crockpot, when the pulp separated from the water I'd skim the pulp off. Repeat process. Now I put them through the juicer, pour juice in a gallon jar, the pulp will separate from the water, skin the pulp, let stand longer, skim again. Thick sauce. This may only work with a champion juicer.(If you have room you can save the water for soup in you freezer.) Cathy, put the remains of the tomato through a food milland you'll get some more juice and tomato paste. I hope this is makes sense, I'm in a hurry another storm is about to hit. Gotta unplug.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 09, 2000.

Cathy, I forgot to say, after you put the remains thru the food mill, put that juice through a cloth bag. Then process in waterbath.

-- Cindy(IN) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 09, 2000.

Cindy, if you don't want to wait for the stuff to gravity seperate, you can bring the juice to a boil to bring the air out (I blender mine) and then CAREFULLY ladle it into a mesh strainer. The solids will stay in the mesh, and the water drains through. Take it out when it is thick enough to suit you. I have made some DRY tomato paste this way. And if you don't have room in your freezer for the drained liquid, it cans up just fine.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), August 09, 2000.

Yes, I tend to leave in the skins and seeds, for several reasons: 1. The compounds in the gel around the seeds and in the skins are responsible for much of the flavor of a long-simmered sauce, so sayeth the experts. 2. I feel that along with flavor compounds comes nutritional compounds, as they are often intermixed or even the same thing, so sayeth the experts. 3. My juicer does an admirable job of smashing the tough bits into oblivion and plus its just that much more work to seperate them after, so sayeth Soni. If the bits bother you (I imagine they could irritate denture wearers), you could always seperate them with a food mill, but for best flavor and nutrition, do it after cooking.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 10, 2000.

I, too, just wash, core, and give 'em a ride in the blender, on puree. I then add peppers, mushrooms, spices, and all the other goodies for spaghetti sauce. All the veggies I have first dried in the dehydrator, so that reduces "thickening time" even more. GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), August 11, 2000.

And for the ultimate in easy sauce, dry the tomatos too. Small ones are best for this, you can half or quarter the, and spread them skin side down to keep them from sticking to the tray. They store well sealed in canning jars, but with no need to process them. For sauce, just fill the blender about 1/3 with water, turn it on, and start tossing in dried tomatos and such until it is thick enough to suit you.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), August 15, 2000.

I don't do quite what you do - I use the water that would go through a fine mesh strainer and boil it on high heat to quickly reduce it, then add the pulp back.

Trouble is I'm going crazy making large batches of sauce and trying to separate the juice from the tomato - have a few methods, the best being first a food mill then squeeze through fine cheesecloth - but I'm still getting sore hands... doing all this work.

Does anyone here have a juicer that really separates the pulp of tomatoes from the water - all the pulp? I'd sure like to know which brands do and which don't. I am considering buying a juicer and want the right one...

Nancy (nsexton@cme.com)

-- Nancy Sexton (nsexton@cme.com), July 16, 2001.