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RE: How to use a Kitchenaid fruit and vegetable strainer for toma

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Posted by digdirt 6 -7 AR (My Page) on Mon, Aug 23, 10 at 16:48
Can't speak directly to the Kitchen Aid but assuming it works like all the other tomato food mills the just wash, remove stems, and trim off bruised or discolored portions and put directly into non-reactive pan. Heat until the fruit is softened in texture - about 10-15 mins. stirring so it doesn't stick.
Then run the heated mixture through your food mill to remove skins and seeds and into the catch bowl below.

Simmer the resulting juice in large-diameter saucepan until sauce reaches desired consistency. Boil until volume is reduced by about one-third for thin sauce, or by one-half for thick sauce.

If you plan to can it the add the required bottled lemon juice or citric acid to jars. Fill jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process.

Alternative - try cutting your tomatoes into small enough pieces to fit into the hopper hole - looks to be fairly small on the Kitchen Aid) and running your tomatoes through the food mill without cooking first. You can do this but it takes more work, makes more mess, and you don't get as much juice or meat from the tomatoes so results in less sauce.

Dave

Naw, not stupid. ;) Actually you can do it either way - before or after cooking them a bit. It is a personal preference thing based on ease of handling.

Some prefer to run them through just washed and cut in quarters with no pre-cooking. That's fine.

Personally I prefer to wash them, dump them all in a stock pot and cook them over a low heat just until softened. Then run them through the mill and cook the resulting sauce down to the thickness I want and jar and process it. I get more juice from the softened hot tomatoes, more meat, and less explosive squirting. But it means handling them hot rather than cold.

When I do it that way I can also add my onions and garlic or whatever to the pot and let it all cook together and then mill it.

Some will roast them in the oven first then through the mill, some will mill them and then let them sit in the fridge overnight to separate and they can pour off some of the water - less cooking down that way.

It is your choice. Try both ways and see which you prefer. Ok?

Dave

OK !!!!!!!!!

I am about ten pounds in, and boy is it a mess. I think there is tomato in my hanging lights, LOL!
Think I might do your idea of cooking them a bit to soften.
Thanks for all your tips and your patience!

I think there is tomato in my hanging lights, LOL!

Been there. Done that. Got the tomato splattered T-shirt and window and ceiling and floor to prove it! :)

Dave

Oh, what a terrible mess tomatoes can be.

I also prefer to pre-cook before straining. I've found I do need to let the mixture cool a bit before running through; I just don't like dealing with super-hot tomatoes.

Carol

My sympathies for your tomato-spattered kitchen, mockturtle!

I was grumbling the other day after working with purple grapes, and having to put them unexpectedly through the food mill because they had seeds I hadn't known about, that it looked like Barney had exploded in my kitchen....

Tomato splatter can end up making the kitchen look like a scene of recent violence!

Z

Too funny.
This morning I had to climb a ladder to get it off the ceiling!
Those were from the begining...before I started per cooking. That definitely cut down on the upward splatter, but not the rest of it. The juice creeps out of every crevice doesn't it? Tomato bath took on an entirely new meaning!

But back to the original post, once that giant vat of tomato liquid finishes cooking down a week from now, there is no way it is going to make 7 quart.
It is about 9 quarts before cooking.

But thanks to all of you for your words of wisdom.

That's when the "how much do you cook it down" variable comes into play. ;) Some cook it down much more than others do.

But I am curious, what does one use a whole quart of tomato sauce for? Course there is only the 2 of us but the only time we would use a quart of it would be if we had all the kids and grandkids over at the same time (heaven forbid!) for spaghetti so we can our sauce in pints.

Dave

I use a quart just for hubby and I. It usually leaves enough left over for lunch the next day. I could down a pint myself. LOL. Can all my tomato products other than salsas in quarts.

Mockturtle, I work my tomatoes up hot, becuase working them up cold tends to make the resulting product separate. Doesn't hurt a thing, but working hot will produce a more homogeneous end result.

When I make spaghetti sauce I use my mom's recipe.
1 lb. ground beef
2 Large cans diced tomatoes
4 small cans tomato paste
One diced onion
8 cloves garlic.

My family of four pretty much wipes that out, with leftovers for a couple of days of lunches.

I can't even imagine tomatoes in pints. I'd have to open so many jars all the time!

We are a family of 6 (4 growing children) and a quart of sauce is just about right for a pasta dinner. Making lasagne or eggplant parma or the like is a 2 quart affair at least.

Sharon and her tomato loving herd

'Oh, what a terrible mess tomatoes can be.' Ha! Maybe you haven't tried redcurrant juice up the walls yet..... The jelly bag fell of the hook in the night. We had to repaint.

I can tomatoes in quarts as puree, without cooking it down first. I find it most versatile that way.

The Kitchen Aid strainer can indeed be messy. I much prefer the Victorio strainer. It can handle a lot more produce at a go. And you can put one of those splatter shields over the hopper to cut down on sploosh.

I have a KA. Normally I wash, cut in half (or smaller if using larger fruit) and push them through. I've tried simmering them but found that made a huge mess!

But yesterday I was making a sauce and seasoned it with other stuff and then ran it all through the machine. It simmered for about an hour first, and boy did that go through the machine wonderfully! This was by far the easiest I've ever encountered (and I've run about 200 lbs through the unit this year).

When they were only simmered lightly (soft but not mush) they seems to squirt real often when in the machine and I had juice all over. When I did them raw they take more effort to push, but they squirted way less often. When they were cooked to a mush, I used a quart sauce pan as a ladle, and they poured right in and went through with no squirting and almost no pushing effort. After running everything through, I had about 30 qts of seasoned purrie.

I run my machine on speed 6-7. It sure would be nice if the unit came with a larger hopper.

Cathy

ltilton, can you post your recipe for pureed tomatoes? That is exactly what I am looking for. I prefer a diced or pureed tomato for my pasta sauces.

Macy, can you also post exactly what you did?

This is more like it !

I was making BBQ sauce. I have mostly Roma and Italia tomatoes, so I just wash them good and then cut them in half. I put them in the pans on low heat until they juiced up a bit (you can mush some too, to start) and once they get heating they juice up on their own.

I added onion, celery seed and garlic, and then just let the mixture boil down. I think I let it boil for about an hour - it really was very mushy.

Then I set up the KA with the food mill, and started ladleing the hot tomatoe mixture in - juice and all. I would do a bowl full, dump the bowl and then run the waste back through the mill a second time to get a bit more out. Then I'd toss that and start a next batch.

I keep a large metal spoon and hand, and with each full bowl, I would take off the clear plastic cover and use the spoon to scrape the pulp off the seive. That kept it from plugged up and I did the whole batch without having to clean it.

When I'm done, I use the garden spray nozel to blow the spiral clean. I also spray into the strainer and use the spoon to scrape the pulp clean - keep at it until it's all gone. My kitchen spayer does not have enough power to do an adequate job. I use to hate cleaning that thing, but now it's pretty easy. But I cheat as my garden hose spayer is in my summer kitchen. My KA has been spending a lot of time out there lately too (it's in the glass case)

I just purchased a kitchenaid strainer myself, and had the same experience. First batch raw, and was covered with tomato, and so was my kitchen! I simmered the second batch per Dave's advice, and it was very easy to put a whole bunch through the strainer! Now, I'm trying Dave's recipe of roasting with olive oil, garlic, onion, fresh thyme and oregano, then putting it through the strainer then simmering with white wine. I wish I saw this post earlier, and I would have warned you of the mess from trying to process the tomatoes raw! I am still having the problem of the tomatoes seeping through where the ring attaches to the grinder body. Does anyone else have this problem?