Time to get a food mill?
The tomatoes are suddenly turning red—-fast! That eager anticipation for the perfect, mouthwatering , juicy tomato is long gone. Now they are piling up on the counters and the thought of another tomato sandwich is….well, you know. It may be time to invest in a food mill/ strainer. They are inexpensive and quick and easy to use. You’ll be patting yourself on the back this winter, having all that good tomato sauce stocked in your freezer . This is all it takes;
Remove the tomato stems. Cut tomato into wedges. Place in large saucepan or stockpot. Add herbs and garlic if you want to. Cover pot, cook on medium high until it starts to bubble. Once it starts bubbling, remove lid, lower heat and bring it down to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally, about 3 hours. This will evaporate a lot of the water so your tomato sauce is nice and thick. Let cool.
Pour everything through the food mill/ strainer. Turn the handle. Catch the pulp. I have a very old, hand cranked Victorio. At first it may look like you have made tomato juice. You haven’t. Put the pulp through again, at least twice. All the stuff that comes through the strainer goes into the sauce and makes it thick. You may have a different type of mill. Either way, when you’re all done, the pulp/seed residue will be very dry. All the good stuff is strained and squeezed out . You will have a beautiful tomato sauce.
Tomato sauce put through food mill/strainer
this post was shared with The Homestead Barn Hop!
handmade. homegrown. beautiful life 
this is a great idea. thanks for sharing. that fresh tomato sauce looks good!
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Thank you! I go to your site often. It is really inspiring.
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Great!!! Lovely idea and photos!
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Thanks. I can’t believe I’m still milling tomatoes at the end of October, what a funny garden season this has been.
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Do you think the textural smoothness is worth the work of doing the food mill? I just puree skin, seeds and all because I don’t have a mill and just want to get them canned up, figuring we can putz with straining later. I didn’t do any tomato canning this year as our garden was awful and the little veg we had all had to go to our CSA members. That’s ok though, now we can clear through the inventory and start fresh this upcoming year. Can’t wait for the garden!
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I think pureeing the whole tomato is the way to go if you don’t use them for something that needs a long, slow cook and reduction–like tomato sauce. that’s when the skins get tough. Lots of times I just puree tomatoes whole and add them at the end to a soup or a stew. I don’t bother with milling and making sauce when the crop is bad because it takes soo many tomatoes for just 1 quart of sauce. My squash crop was bad last year, the squash borer decimated everything. Annoying, lol. I can’t wait for the garden either! Yours will be amazing with that pig manure.
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