Monday I was busy making sauce. Yes Monday. I get behind sometimes. It isn't just my tomatoes that I get behind on. Sometimes my blog just doesn't make it on the high priority checklist. Especially after Monday. Harvest Monday takes a lot of time to go through all those posts you put up. It is fun but time consuming. But anyway I digress.
Sauce is so much easier to make than salsa. Salsa I have to boil the tomatoes for a minute or two so I can peel off all the skins. Then I have to get rid of all the tomato guts and cut out any cores or cracks. But sauce is easy. I just quarter the tomatoes and squeeze out the worse of the insides. I don't do a great job and it takes just a few seconds. Then I toss them all in a pot and let them boil for about 2 minutes (just themselves, no water). Then into the Victorio strainer they go. It still takes time, but comparatively it is very fast. And easier on the back than sitting at the table getting out all the tomato guts. I so love my strainer. Too bad I can't make salsa that way.
Sadly I had eight jars that needed processing. My canner takes seven pint jars. So I had to process twice. By the end of that time the house was so hot an humid. I had all the windows opened.
But here they are. Seven pints of sauce and one of tomato juice. And extra in the fridge that I'll probably use to make more salsa later. I had an empty kitchen counter - for about half a day.
Tomato processing is a time consuming and messy job! I have a lot of tomatoes coming in every day and my counter is just filling up too! I've been thinking of canning too. Since I'm a novice, I'm a bit hesitant. Your end product looks so good! It's worth all the time and effort!
ReplyDeleteI'll be so glad when I have all my salsa made. I'm so tired of squeezing out tomato guts! That is soooo time consuming. I've been canning tomato juice, which is so much easier. As soon as I catch up, my counters are full of tomatoes again. I hear you on having just one or two jars more than the canner holds. I can get 7 pints in mine, but a batch and a half makes 10 pints, so I have to do the extra three.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to make either barbecue sauce or ketchup today. I'm almost out of jars now, so it won't be long and I'll be giving away most of my tomatoes.
I just bought a pressure canner. Love the filled jars. That is an accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteYour tomato sauce jars look so pretty. I can't wait to use my tomato strainer for the first time to make tomato sauce. It was a Christmas gift. Right now all the tomatoes are going into the freezer until I am ready to make a huge batch.
ReplyDeleteThey look gorgeous! And I hear you on the peeling and coring.... but I'll do one more batch of salsa using Granny's pineapple variation of Annie's Salsa, with some added ground chipotle chiles.
ReplyDeleteThey look beautiful. I never make sauce, I'll have to try it one of these days. Peeling and coring is certainly not the highlight of my summer.
ReplyDeleteI got a food mill for making the sauce, sounds like your strainer. I've never made homemade sauce before but am looking forward to roasting some Super San Marzanos this weekend with garlic for some sauce.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had enough tomatoes to complain about it. I may have to save some up and do slow-roasted sauce soon.
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful! We don't really do canning so much here over in the UK. I have some Mason jars however, so I might give it a go.
ReplyDeleteI use my strainer to do salsa as well. I have a salsa screen which leaves chunks and bits of the tomato rather than such a fine puree. I then added some additional (hand processed) cut up tomatoes to that to create a nice mixture of large bits, small bits, and puree. I also use the strainer for sauce and paste as well. Great thing they are! Love the jars lined up - so pretty to look at.
ReplyDeleteRandomGardener, it is. I love the results.
ReplyDeleteGranny, I do my tomato juice when I do my salsa. I squeeze out the guts and they make my tomato juice. I let them dip through a sieve.
Layanee, I've never done any pressure canning. I keep thinking about it, but never really decide either way.
GrafixMuse, I don't think they would fit in my freezer. Well maybe, but then I'd have trouble getting to everything. Canning in the fall seems like a better time though. You don't have to fight the heat.
Ali, the pineapple version sounded really good, but my husband hates it so I decided to stick to the regular type.
The Mom, not mine either. But I do love all those cans lined up.
GoneferalinID, they are not quite the same but basically do the same job.
Stefaneener, I did roasted sauce last year. It was quite tasty.
Matron, it is interesting that you all don't can much. I know I've read enough UK blogs to know that jams are popular, but I haven't heard much of people canning salsa or tomatoes.
Laura, Sadly I don't have a screen for that. It would be nice though as the screens are so much easier.