I'd hate to waste the juice like that.

I usually either add some corn starch (my favorite: Hi-Maize; several times the fiber content of whole wheat!) or some dried tomatoes. I usually dry my late-season tomatoes that have been exposed to frost, since it's not usually considered safe to can them.

karenrei

Well, I know what you mean, but if you cook it away, it's wasted anyway. Though I see you add things to soak up the juice. I plan to cook the spaghetti in it, so it won't be entirely wasted.

I can't think of any use for extremely thin tomato juice from fresh tomatoes except maybe to use it to moisten bread crumbs in meat loaf and as a substitute for water in some other dishes with tomatoes as an ingredient.

Got any ideas?

Anney, YUM-O! Lucky you, I envy your dinner tonite.

Is there a forum (looked but could not find anything tomato specific here) where people share their freezing/baking/drying techniques and also a "tomato recipe exchange"? I know recipes are everywhere online but it would be fun to see what the posters here end up making and how, especially salsa and tomato pie recipes (can you tell I have been thinking about these 2 things obsessively??)

Enjoy your sauce!

ditnc

There's a harvest forum where I've seen recipes for cooking, canning, drying, freezing, etc., of herbs and vegetables. There's also a cooking forum in one section of GardenWeb, and they certainly exchange recipes for whatever topic comes up!

And thanks! We will enjoy the sauce tonight!

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karenrei

I did find two other uses for the thin tomato juice that is released from fresh tomatoes. That includes using it to cook rice for some dishes and using it to bake/baste meats and fish in. May help tenderize them. Some people freeze the juice and use it year-round for whatever strikes their fancy instead of other vegetable stocks.

I'm not a fan of leaving the skin and seeds in my juice or sauce. I also remove the stem end of the tomatoes before I juice them. I use the attachment for KitchenAid mixers and for smallish quantities it works fine. After juicing I usually freeze the juice in vacuum bags or cook it right away. Either way I use the crock pot. Now you can get the clear plastic liners for slow cookers so cleanup is really easy. Anyway I put in the frozen juice with some olive oil, garlic, onions, red wine, salt, sugar(if needed), and one or two anchovies. Turn on the slow cooker and only partially cover it with the lid. Let it go as long as it needs. About one half hour before you want to eat it add a lot of fresh basil. If the tomatoes are too loose I'll add some tomato paste to thicken it up. The point I'm trying to make is that a slow cooker makes cooking sauce very easy. It does not burn on the bottom and can be left alone all day to do its thing.

Well, I know what you mean, but if you cook it away, it's wasted anyway.

Oh, no -- if you cook it down or thicken it, all you waste is the water. You keep the nutrients and flavor and concentrate them. :)

I was typing while Karen was posting. I agree with her. When you cook down tomato puree or whole tomatoes you only cook off the water in the form of steam. You do not cook off tomato juice.

I just ain't gonna cook tomatoes for 7 hours any more to get a thick sauce! I'd rather use the thin juice for other things.

But, to each his own! Lycopene in tomato skins is released by cooking, so whatever amounts get included are really good for people. It's in the red part of the fruit.

tomatovator

I also remove any black spots from the stem end or elsewhere on the tomato before freezing it. FWIW, including the skin, seeds, flesh and core DOES make a chunkier thicker sauce, but if there's meat in it anyway (tonight I have ground venison), it doesn't change the texture of the sauce much.

Sorry, jumping into your conversation from my lurking...

So, what all do you do to freeze the tomatoes? Just wash them, remove any spots and stems and freeze them? I have a chest freezer and a foodsaver. Please let me know exactly how you freeze your tomatoes. Thank you!

I have been making sauce and canning it the past few years, but I haven't found a good canning recipe that matches fresh made sauce. I'd love a tasty alternative.

sandra

The link at the bottom gives pretty good instructions for freezing tomatoes. It's probably the easiest vegetable there is to freeze unless you want to take lots of pains with it.

There are lots of ways to handle tomatoes you want to freeze. A lot of people just put whole unblemished tomatoes in a Food Saver bag, remove the air, and seal them. Others cut them apart and remove the blemishes and stem ends. That's my method since by the time I get around to it, I have surfaces everywhere covered with tomatoes. IOW, I don't peel or seed them but blend them all together in a food processor (my Smoothie maker).

Other people remove the skins before freezing them by giving them a short boiling-water bath.

Some people freeze them individually on cookie sheets and then put them in plastic / Food Saver bags. Some people make the sauce first and freeze it in blocks, then put it into large plastic / Food Saver bags.

So you have a lot of choices, but once you understand you don't have to blanch them and decide how much up-front time you have to process them, it's very easy.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to freeze tomatoes

Thank you!

I will check the link tomorrow; no time tonight. I do love canning other things, but sauce is not one of them. It just doesn't taste the same. I am thrilled to have info on another option. I like the thought of throwing everything in the sauce, I am always thinking of ways to sneak in good things for my kids to eat. Skins are good, provide benefits too important to miss out on and your way is a cool way to sneak them in. Not sure hubby would deal well with the seeds, but maybe they'd puree up so he wouldn't know. I look forward to checking everything out and trying something new this year.

Thank you!!! :)

I can because there isn't enough room in my freezers for 100 quarts of sauce.

I don't have time to boil it down so I can it thin. Then when I use it I pour it into a sieve and the water runs through leaving a thick sauce.

I use the water for soup stock.

Zeuspaul

If you want more recipes and tips on canning/freezing/drying and other forms of preserving then check out the Harvest Forum here. Several pros post there regularly too and home food preservation is its focus.

You'll also find tips there on the various tomato mills/presses, recipes, and how to avoid watery sauces not to mention suggestions for use for the left-over watery sauce in soup bases and stews.

Dave

I have a very small garden, and nothing, especially the tomatoes, is ripening on the same schedule. Would it be possible to freeze or dry a few tomatoes at a time until I accumulate enough to make vegetable juice?

That WONDERFUL tomato 'water' is great added to soup or stew. I like the idea of one of the posters in this thread and will try cooking my rice in it. YUM!

I drain my toms to make salsa. Liquid gold.

Whenever I make salsa I don't drain the tomatoes first in a colander. I put in the jalapenos, onion, cilantro, lime juice, garlic and bell pepper and let it sit for a couple of hours. THEN I drain it in a colander. I save that juice in a baggy in the freezer and keep adding to it. I use that liquid to cook rice in and it is yummy!

Benable, whenever I have a few too many ripe tomatoes I just wash and core and throw them in the gallon baggie with all the other frozen tomatoes until I have enough to make sauce.

I was playing around with how to dehydrate my tomato puree one year, and this sort of worked:
Have you ever seen those cone-shaped colanders? They usually come with a wooden thing that you use to press food through the cone colander.
Anyhow......I poured gently my tomato juice into it and left it alone for awhile. when I came back, water had come out of it and it was thicker. (Of course you have to put it in a big pan or it will drip all over the counter).
Anyhow........I thought it was a good idea for how to dehydrate it without using any power.