can we see a pic of that...would love to know the maker as well..

When I was a kid, I helped my Grandma put up catsup in bottles as you suggest. She had a bottle capper to secure the caps. The tops looked like beer bottle caps. I don't remember that she BWB'd them.

Actually, they are called food strainers. Here is a photo in another thread to compare yours to. Note the wrap around spatter shield and extended waste cone. The photo is near the bottom of the thread. The very old original models were called Victorio, had aluminium hoppers and wooden pushers, then Villaware, and now Roma Weston, among other brands. There are many hundreds of post about these and if you do a search of the word 'Villaware', or 'Roma' you will see many. They are all very similar, except yours probably has big wing nuts on either side of the conical sieve to hold it onto the cast body. The most recent is Roma, and has several improvements to prevent leaking from the crank shaft and several other improvements. Today, the strainers simply twist on and are held in placed by a small thumb screw. They also offer optional sieves and and shorter auger for the big seeds of grapes.
The other type is a Foley, and its sort of shaped like a sauce pan, with a crank at the top. In this application, its nearly useless as it will clog up quickly with skins, unless preprep is done. The food strainer needs only have big tomatoes cut in halves or quarters to go into the hopper. VERY EFFICIENT machine!!

I wasn't able to supply a direct photo as Photo Bucket (where pictures are saved) is acting erratic.

Canning in used coke bottles and other means, is not safe, so please follow todays canning standards as to safety. My chunky ketchup is canned in pint jars.

Here is a link that might be useful: Food strainer

Same thing but mine is much, much older and beat up looking. It does have the wing nuts. Once I got the hang of it, it was really, really easy to do the tomatoes. I got three quarts out of 14 tomatoes. I froze them. I do have mason jars and the equipment for canning (safely) but I've never done it before and I am a little nervous. If I run out of room in the freezer, I'll just have to do it!!

Fear not, there are MANY experts here that can help you with canning. The easiest things to can are pickles and tomatoes. Tomatoes, no matter the type, need citric acid added to ensure that they are acidic enough. Obviously pickles are made in a vinegar based brine, or fermented in a salt based brine. Usually, I put up about 30-60 quarts of tomatoes, but now, don't grow any for canning. Another fairly easy thing to can is jellies, if you follow the recipes, you usually get a decent product. Because pectin needs sugar to set, and I use Splenda, I also use Pomona pectin, which is very easy to use and fool proof!

The machine you have also has an 'optional berry screen' that makes short work out of seedy raspberries and black berries. These have to be the most efficient machines made just for that reason. My parents had used Foleys and the old Victorio brand, but after I had difficulty with the Foleys, I sold them cheap in a garage sale. Later on, I bought a newer food strainer and have been very happy with all its improvements. It can 'crank out' a bushel of tomatoes in no time. Mine also has a optional motor attachment, so its hands free. Usually, I like thick sauces to begin with, so I cut the toms in halves and use my thumb to scoop out most of the seeds and gel inside. Then the stuff that comes out of teh food strainer looks like it was already cooked down.
BTW, I have TWO freezers here and about 6 full sized shelf systems, that can old up to 48 jars per shelf.. Thats a lOT of canning!!

How neat! Indeed, it sounds like this venerable object works EXACTLY like the shiny, new one Ken posted a photo of. Hey, when something works, why mess with it?

Go ahead and can tomato sauce! It's fun, easy, and allows you to store it outside the freezer, give some away, etc.

It sounds like you have the equipment; I recommend you get a Ball Blue Book for the detailed instructions & amounts, etc. And that you tell us how your further adventures in tomato preservation go! Thanks for sharing.

Zabby

Okay - my daughter and I just crushed another 2 quarts of Brandywine's for sauce. It was kind of cool that she was using her great, great grandfather's machine!!!

I'll freeze as much as I can. I have a small chest freezer that is almost empty and very energy efficient. Once that is full, I will try my hand at canning. Still a little nervous about it but I figure - with modern medicine, what's a little botulism these days :-) Kidding about that. One day, I will bite the bullet and just try!!!

I bet that batch of Brandywines took only a minute to run through the old food strainer.. Can you imaging doing a bushel of tomatoes? Cut in halves, dig out the seeds and liquid and then run through for a thicker sauce. Its noe necessary to get all the seeds or watery liquid, just enough that it will give you less water that would need cooking down.

ccaggiano, you can do it!

Just let us know what questions you have when your freezer is full and you're ready to can, and we'll talk you through it. This site has converted many a dubious "yikes-I-might-try-it" into a hundreds-of-jars-a-year die-hard! ;-)

Zabby