I'd rinse them under hot water if you want to remove peels.
If you're saucing all of them, no need to do this step.

Allow to thaw in colander over a big pot to catch the "water". I can this for soup stock.

When tomatoes are thawed, run through Victorio. I don't worry if it takes longer than 2 hours. The safety issues are being between 40-140 degrees for more than 2 hours, then eating without any additional cooking. In this case, you will bring the tomato sauce to a boil, then process (with added acid, of course).

Depending on how thick you want the sauce, you can bring to a boil and pack jars or cook down more. I like to cook down in the oven....no scorching and less babysitting.

Sounds like a great winter project!

Deanna

Easy. Just take the bags out of the freezer a day or two ahead of time and let them thaw at room temperature. Then run them all through the food mill and either can as tomato juice or cook down for sauce.

No draining needed as it is all contained in the ziplock bags. But if you want to do it for some reason then a big wire tea strainer works well. So does a cheese cloth bag.

Dave

Thanks - I was thinking it wouldn't be safe to thaw this "potentially hazardous" food at room temperature. After I got the email from Deanna I did put 1 gal (5lbs) in my steamer basket on top of my stockpot, it thawed enough at 67 degrees to break up the chunk by dinner time but then I put them in my 6qt D.O. and put in fridge. Not sure if bags won't leak, might have holes from handling. I'll put as many bags as fit in my 18qt roaster sitting in that (to catch leaks) in basement and maybe they'll be thawed out by Wed. Basement is mid-40's.

I was thinking it wouldn't be safe to thaw this "potentially hazardous" food at room temperature.

That is true for meat and dairy. But tomatoes often on the counter at room temp for days, on grocery store shelves, and even on the vine and still get eaten. Why would freezing and thawing them make them "potentially hazardous" ?

Dave

Fresh *cut* tomatoes are considered "potentially hazardous" by our health dept but as Deanna pointed out that's not considering they'll be cooked afterwards. I know you're not supposed to thaw meat at room temperature and then cook (or can) it so didn't know about tomatoes - I'd have to empty my fridge of everything else to fit that many bags of tomatoes in but my basement is not much warmer than the fridge so if 40/140 rule doesn't apply I will thaw them down there.

Then using their reasoning (a case of covering their a** I think) ANYTHING fresh cut would be "potentially hazardous" as the cutting exposes a new, moist surface to the air and exposure to airborne bacteria.

That is an extreme precaution - no eating raw vegetables, no vegetables with dip trays, no salad bars, etc.? You are required to eat everything low-acid either whole or immediately as it is cut?

Dave

Not left out more than 2 hours. I know an orchard that had to stop giving samples of apples, they had cut wedges sitting out (not on ice), either more than 2 hours or they didn't want to change them every 2 hours after health dept paid a visit they started putting out a bowl of smaller 2nds by the bushels of each variety and charging for "samples".

I just got done processing my tomatoes - they were still partially frozen when I started milling them today (the basement is 46). Drained the liquid out of the bags and strained the seeds out, canned that as "juice" (clear with some fluffy tomato stuff at bottom), 5 quarts and just now taking 3 quarts of sauce out of canner. I only did 4 bags (about 20 lbs), the others were already sauced or labeled "over-ripe not for canning" so I stuck them in the freezer (they were still frozen in the cooler in the garage yesterday). And no siphoning!

I'm wondering whether irt would be safe to process the over-ripe tomatoes in a recipe for Spaghetti Sauce or a soup that called for longer processing?

Here is what I would do:

-- Wash/soak in cold water, in order to peel off.
-- Put them in a pot at low-medium heat,
-- Raise the heat once thawed and water/juice accumulated.
-- Use a potato masher then a stick blender. (**)
-- Continue til you get the desired consistency.

(**) after it is partially cooked and softened , sieve it thru a rice strainer to get the pulp and the seeds. This is what I do with store bought whole canned tomato.

There is more than one way to skin a dead cat :-)

Seysonn