Ninjabut, Maybe an investment of a food strainer would speed things up quite a lot. These require no pre-prepping of tomatoes. You simply place them whole or cut up in big chunks, and out comes a nice sauce, with all seeds and skins out the waste end. There is also a salsa screen for this machine that gives a nice minced texture and still takes out most seeds and all skins. These can handle a bushel in less than an hour in most cases. Check out the food strainers Villaware/Roma/Weston, or others etc. I don't like watery sauces, so I take the extra few seconds to cut them open, and dig out the watery liquid and some seeds. Then they get put through the food strainer and a thicker sauce comes out.

ajsmama - Around here Irene was a wind issue, not a rain issue. We only got 4 inches of rain. The fields weren't flooded. They lost 1 field of corn and 1 field of tomatoes due to wind damage. Then it poured for 4 days this week - another 4 inches of rain. So things are pretty soggy. I guess I'll attempt the rest of my marinara with slicers. I also slow roast my romas and then freeze - but I'll skip that this year if I can't get a decent batch of romas.

Carol, I agree. I would truly leave out that oil. Yes, you would still add the bottled lemon juice since you are adding other ingredients. I think that much garlic is too much, also. This one has 20 lb. of tomatoes and only 8 cloves of garlic. Plus, only 1 T. of oil. Canning your own recipes is not suggested due to safety issues, it can put you at a risk for botulism. I would not can what you are telling us, but freeze it instead. I think it is best if you stick with the recipe from Ball Blue book that has basil in it if you wish to can one . Basil-Garlic Tomato Sauce Ingredients 20 pounds tomatoes 1 cup chopped onion 8 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/4 cup finely minced fresh basil Bottled lemon juice Instructions Prepare Ball® or Kerr® jars and closures according to instructions found in Canning Basics. Wash tomatoes; drain. Remove core and quarter tomatoes; set aside. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until transparent. Add tomatoes. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Put tomato mixture through a food mill or strainer to remove seeds and peel. Combine tomato purée and basil in a large saucepot. Cook over medium-high heat until reduced by one-half, stirring to prevent sticking. Add 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice to each pint jar. Carefully ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Wipe rim and threads of jar with a clean damp cloth. Place lid on jar with sealing compound next to glass. Screw band down evenly and firmly just until a point of resistance is met-fingertip tight. Process 35 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yield: about 7 pints. For altitude adjustment increase processing as indicated below: 1,001-- 3,000 ft.....5 minutes 3,001-- 6,000 ft...10 minutes 6,001-- 8,000 ft...15 minutes 8,001- 10,000 ft...20 minutes Nutrition Information Per 1/2 Cup Serving: Calories 73 Protein 3g Carbohydrate 15g Fat 1.5g Cholesterol 0mg Sodium 28mg Potassium 702mg % USRDA: Protein 6% Vitamin A 21% Vitamin C 102% Thiamin 12% Riboflavin 9% Niacin 10% Calcium 2% Iron 8%

I never thought of using a crock-pot but I imagine it would work. However, it seems kinda small to handle a decent sized batch. At least 15 years ago an Italian lady told me about using an electric roaster and I have been doing that ever since. NO MORE BURNED SAUCE!!!!! Some details: 1) Skin and core the tomatoes first--cut them open to be sure there are no yucks inside. 2) Cook up in a big pot and boil for at least 5 minutes till the steam coming off the stewed tomatoes changes from a harsh smell to a sweet tomato smell. 3) Ladle into a blender and rev her up for about 15 to 20 seconds. 4) Pour the blender load into a hand cranked processing strainer and turn the crank BACKWARDS, SO LIFTING THE SEEDS UP OFF THE SCREEN INSTEAD OF FORCING THEM THROUGH. The strained juice goes into the electric roaster and the seeds and small amount of tough pulp gets recycled to the garden. 5) Continue blender load after another until all the juice has been extracted. You will be impressed with how thick and creamy your juice is at this point--It is actually as thick as any commercial juice on the market and is much more tasty. You can add a teaspoon of salt to each quart and a vitamin C tablet, process and can per standard procedures and enjoy as the finest juice possible. Note that if you throw some seeded hot peppers into the stewing pot you will end up with something like snappy tom--but now on to sauce making. 6) I set my electric roaster thermostat at about 280; I think you can piddle with this to match your unit to a good simmer rate. I also set a small electric fan next to the roaster to blow away the vapors and have found this cuts concentration time down considerably. A thick crust tends to form on the surface of the simmering sauce; I stir frequently to bust this up and it helps a great deal. 7) Before I turn the roaster on I measure the depth of the juice using a clean ruler. I concentrate to 1/2 that depth to get the thickness of sauce I like. I find I can boil down a full roaster load to 1/2 depth in 4 to 6 hours. 8) Once your concentration is complete you can add into the roaster pan whatever flavorings/etc you desire to end up with your maranara or spaghetti sauce. 9) I then pressure can but one could also freeze if desired.