Making tomato sauce

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

My tomatoes are ripe, and usually I cook the tomatoes down to make
"sauce," and them freeze it. I was thinking I could just chop them up
in my food processor, and then freeze it. Would using the food
processor instead of cooking them make any difference in the texture?
By cooking I reduce the amount of liquid.

Tom

My understanding is that you want to cook, even if only briefly, any
veggies you want to freeze. Apparently this destroys enzymes that can
continue to degrade the produce even when frozen.

My approach is to roughly chop the tomatoes, cook them down for an hour
or two (adding some salt), then put them thru a food mill to remove
skins and seeds.

--
Peter Aitken

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted post said:

My tomatoes are ripe, and usually I cook the tomatoes down to make
"sauce," and them freeze it. I was thinking I could just chop them up
in my food processor, and then freeze it. Would using the food
processor instead of cooking them make any difference in the texture?
By cooking I reduce the amount of liquid.

I suggest trying some of each, if you have the freezer space, and then
over the next year see which you like better. Some people freeze
tomatoes whole, which is easier at the time but more work later.

"Peter A" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

My tomatoes are ripe, and usually I cook the tomatoes down to make
"sauce," and them freeze it. I was thinking I could just chop them up
in my food processor, and then freeze it. Would using the food
processor instead of cooking them make any difference in the texture?
By cooking I reduce the amount of liquid.

Tom

My understanding is that you want to cook, even if only briefly, any
veggies you want to freeze. Apparently this destroys enzymes that can
continue to degrade the produce even when frozen.

My approach is to roughly chop the tomatoes, cook them down for an hour
or two (adding some salt), then put them thru a food mill to remove
skins and seeds.
Peter Aitken

If your tomatoes are mild and not very acidic, you might want to add a
tablespoon of lemon juice per pint. This is not as much as would be added
for boiling water bath canning, and none is needed for pressure canning, but
the higher acid content will help reduce growth of the bad guys in your
freezer without much taste change.
Edrena

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

If your tomatoes are mild and not very acidic, you might want to add a
tablespoon of lemon juice per pint. This is not as much as would be added
for boiling water bath canning, and none is needed for pressure canning, but
the higher acid content will help reduce growth of the bad guys in your
freezer without much taste change.
Edrena

This is completely unnecessary. "Bad guys" do not grow in frozen food,
period.

--
Peter Aitken

Peter A said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

My tomatoes are ripe, and usually I cook the tomatoes down to make
"sauce," and them freeze it. I was thinking I could just chop them up
in my food processor, and then freeze it. Would using the food
processor instead of cooking them make any difference in the texture?
By cooking I reduce the amount of liquid.

Quoted message said:

Tom

My understanding is that you want to cook, even if only briefly, any
veggies you want to freeze. Apparently this destroys enzymes that can
continue to degrade the produce even when frozen

Nope. Blanching sets the color of green/yellow veggies is all... not
necessary with tomatoes.

Quoted message said:

My approach is to roughly chop the tomatoes, cook them down for an hour
or two (adding some salt), then put them thru a food mill to remove
skins and seeds.

It's easier to cook chunked tomatoes for a few minutes to tenderize so
that the food mill can separate the skins and seeds... then cook the
milled tomatoes further (along with garlic, onion, etc. as desired) to
reduce.

If tomatoes are frozen before they're reduced all you're doing is
filling your freezer with a lot of frozen water... makes a lot more
sense to freeze the finished tomato sauce. Also, you'll never get to
finishing the frozen unreduced tomatoes, eventually they'll end up in
the trash.

Attempting to prepare sauce from salad tomatoes is a waste of time,
and tomatoes.... use Romas or equivalent.

Sheldon

I think you need to get rid of the extraneous water otherwise you will
get crystals forming.

What we tend to do is to cook the tomatoes to a pulp, pass them through
a mouli (no idea what these are called outside of France) to remove
skins/pips and then freeze what's left. I wouldn't call it sauce but it
could be used to make one, mine normally goes in Chili !

An alertnative is to cut thetoms in two and then dry slowly in the oven
and then freeze

Steve

PS I ate half my tomato crop in a sarnie last week, worst year ever for
us due to weather/mildrew/blight/U T Cobbley

Quoted message said:

My tomatoes are ripe, and usually I cook the tomatoes down to make
"sauce," and them freeze it. I was thinking I could just chop them up
in my food processor, and then freeze it. Would using the food
processor instead of cooking them make any difference in the texture?
By cooking I reduce the amount of liquid.

Tom

"Steve Y" <[email hidden]> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I think you need to get rid of the extraneous water otherwise you will get
crystals forming.

I haven't seen that.

Quoted message said:

What we tend to do is to cook the tomatoes to a pulp, pass them through a
mouli (no idea what these are called outside of France) to remove
skins/pips and then freeze what's left. I wouldn't call it sauce but it
could be used to make one, mine normally goes in Chili !

I guess that's what I do, but I cook them just to soften them, then pass
them through a food mill. Freeze them flat and they thaw faster than plump
sacks.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My tomatoes are ripe, and usually I cook the tomatoes down to make
"sauce," and them freeze it. I was thinking I could just chop them up
in my food processor, and then freeze it. Would using the food
processor instead of cooking them make any difference in the texture?

Sure, because you will have frozen the seeds and skins as well. I use mine
for more than tomato sauce (tomato soup, various Hungarian dishes, tomato
juice) and they taste just like cooked fresh. Thing is, you can simmer them
down before freezing, in August, or you can simmer them in December. Which
suits you?

On Aug 7, 10:01 am, "[email hidden]" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

My tomatoes are ripe, and usually I cook the tomatoes down to make
"sauce," and them freeze it. I was thinking I could just chop them up
in my food processor, and then freeze it. Would using the food
processor instead of cooking them make any difference in the texture?
By cooking I reduce the amount of liquid.

You can do any or all of these things, tomatoes freeze fine raw or
cooked. You can even freeze whole, washed tomatoes. When you thaw
them the skin will slip right off but of course it'll be mushier than
fresh fruit texture. The question is what are you likely to want when
you reach in the freezer -- sauce, cooked tomatoes, or raw tomatoes.
Decide that, make it or chop it, freeze it. -aem

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My tomatoes are ripe, and usually I cook the tomatoes down to make
"sauce," and them freeze it. I was thinking I could just chop them up
in my food processor, and then freeze it. Would using the food
processor instead of cooking them make any difference in the texture?
By cooking I reduce the amount of liquid.

Tom

At some point you have to pass the tomatoes through food mill to rid seeds
and that portion of the skin that ends up being rejected. This is
traditionally done before reducing the juice to sauce. I have baked the
tomatoes in the oven at 275F for an hour to soften them up before straining
through the mill.
A food processor has no place for making tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes.
I use it, however, when I'm making marinara sauce from canned tomatoes.

Kent

Kent said:

<[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...> My tomatoes are ripe, and usually I cook the tomatoes down to make

Quoted message said:

"sauce," and them freeze it. I was thinking I could just chop them up
in my food processor, and then freeze it. Would using the food
processor instead of cooking them make any difference in the texture?
By cooking I reduce the amount of liquid.

Quoted message said:

Tom

At some point you have to pass the tomatoes through food mill to rid seeds
and that portion of the skin that ends up being rejected. This is
traditionally done before reducing the juice to sauce. I have baked the
tomatoes in the oven at 275F for an hour to soften them up before straining
through the mill.
A food processor has no place for making tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes.
I use it, however, when I'm making marinara sauce from canned tomatoes.

Even with canned tomatoes I use my Foley food mill to remove the
seeds, a processor won't remove seeds, just grinds those pips into the
mix, and grinding releases all their bitterness.