Bill, I bought one last year and I love it. After running the toms through, I run the peel/seeds thorugh a second time and my sauce was great. If you have too much water in the juices after running it through, just cook it down a bit longer.

Good to hear from a current owner, thanks for responding.

I'll order it today.

Bill

The Kitchen Aid attachment only comes with a single sieve, suitable for tomatoes. If you wanted a minced tomato, grape juice, or seedless raspberry jam, the crank type Villaware/Roma offers more optional screens for these other ingredients. They do offer a motor attachment, which is similar to the type used by pasta rolling machines. If the tomatoes are watery, I cut them in halves and scoop out most of the liquid and seeds before running through the strainer. This makes a thicker sauce that dosn't need as much cooking down.

Thanks Ken,

Yes, IÂve read your previous posts on the food mills and know you really like the Villaware type. I already have a manual no name mill that suffices for the amount of jams we do.

Regarding watery tomato sauce, weÂre growing heirloom paste varieties so the sauce shouldnÂt need too much cooking down.

I tried to order the strainer and larger feed attachments yesterday from Amazon but apparently they are not allowed (I assume by KitchenAid) to ship these to Canada. Go figure. Anyhow, I did find sources here but they only sell the strainer as part of a combo pack. IÂd need to buy it along with the grinder and shredder attachments. I already have the grinder and am not interested in the shredder. None of them offer the larger feeder attachment. If I canÂt find a reputable dealer in the US that will ship one up north for a reasonable price, IÂll have to bite the bullet and get the combo pack. I guess I could always use one grinder for meats and the other for tomatoes. As for the shredder, I guess it would make an interesting hood ornament LOL.

All the best,

Bill

I used the Kitchaid strainer for years. It was a big improvement over what I was using before.

With constant use the motor heats up. After about thirty minutes of use mine started dripping motor oil into the sauce. I think the screen is a bit too close to the screw. I run the tomatoes through several times and only end up with seeds. The skins also get pushed through the mesh after a few passes. However the final passes are the most work for the machine.

I upgraded to a dedicated tomato squeezer. It is much faster than the Kitchenaid and the machine does not struggle. The first pass leaves a wetter waste product than the Kitchenaid. However after several passes the final waste is just about as dry as the Kitchenaid waste after several passes thhrough the Kitchenaid.

I have a 1/2 HP model which is a bit big and heavy. I should have opted for one of the 1/4 HP models which run about $300. A google search for tomato squeezer seems to work better than tomato strainer if one is looking for a dedicated machine.

I canned a little under thirty quarts (about fifty quarts before boiling down) in my first canning session this year. I'll probably do about eighty by the time the season is over. I have to can more because my son has taken a liking to the sauce. And now I make my own ketchup. I dedicate an entire day to making sauce. Speed in the squeezing process is a big help.

Zeuspaul

I only run the waste one time through the Roma machine. It keeps out all skins and seeds, and the waste is quite dry on the second and only pass after the inital one. I use mostly san marzano plum tomatoes as well as a few others like Opalka and some paste types. I had oxharts that were big and meaty and have little liquid and seeds. They didn't have as much tomato taste, but offered much more usable pulp. A few years in a row I grew more than 200 tomato plants. Put up about 50 quarts of sauce those years. I made ketchup too and mixed in some pureed onions and peppers.