There is an insane amount of info on this topic here.

best read
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg0723282323375.html?48

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg011641577253.html?28

enjoy

A hand crank food mill, mine is just a cheapo by Sunbeam, works very well at saving the effort of peeling. I say go for that and not pay the money for a motorized one. That's just me. There is still effort involved but far less time.

Thanks I'll check those out. I think the family is siding towards an electric one with a motor because of the volume of tomatoes we go through. Might be there all day cranking a handle. Any specific recommendations?

if you have kitchen aide mixer then all you would need is the attachment. other wise they make an electric motor that goes on the hand crank models

like this

http://www.westonsupply.com/category-s/79.htm

Here is another long discussion on them from just a bit further down the page. Don't know if it is one of the ones Joe linked above or not but if you want more reading on them just search 'food mill or tomato press' in the forum search bar.

The most commonly recommended one is the Victorio/Villaware/Roma. Hand cranked and does easily a hundred lbs. of tomatoes in an hour or two.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Press or food mill discussion

I got the villaware strainer based on the recommendation I found here. It is well worth the money. I'm trying to remember how long it took me to do a wheelbarrow full of tomatoes last year, probably less time than I'll spend trying to remember. It goes so fast, that a small 20lb batch takes more time to clean up afterwards than actually running through the strainer. I will never blanch, peel, and cut tomatoes by hand again. Oh, and mine is hand crank.

I use an old hand cranked Squeezo, it belonged to my mother. It's all stainless steel, a precursor to today's plastic Victorio/Villaware.

I use it for tomato sauce, but I find that I have to cook the tomatoes slightly or it's too hard to crank them. Others, with stronger arms, put their tomatoes through raw.

I don't use it at all for salsa because it smushes everything up too small and I don't use it for raspberries because some of the small seeds get through even the smallest screen. That's OK, I like a few seeds anyway.

It's a champ for applesauce too, but doesn't work worth a rip for cherries for jam. (grin) I've gone back to hand pitting those.

Annie