What machines do you guys/gals use to make your sauces or juice and separate out the seeds? Just a standard food mill? We usually only just eat them fresh but this year put in a lot more plants with the hopes of making some other tomato based products, and I think I need to purchase something to get the seeds out.
We make tomato juice with a Squeezo Strainer. We bought it more than 30 years ago and I'm not sure that brand is still made. I think there's also something called a Victorio Strainer that works the same way. You feed the tomatoes in at the top, turn the crank, and juice somes out the chute with the skins and seeds removed. It works like a dream, except sometimes, after half a bushel or so, the tomato gunk builds up inside and you have to take it apart and clean it before you can finish the bushel.
We simmer the juice down for a few hours to make tomato puree and can it. Or, you can just heat it and can it as juice without cooking it down.
Another thing we do is make like a V-8 juice. First we run the tomatoes through the Squeezo. Then we take whatever veggies we have a lot of in the garden -- beets, carrots, peppers, onions -- and use an old juicer that was my father-in-law's. It's got to be 50 yrs old, but it still works great. We buy celery for this too. I love things hot, so we include lots of hot peppers. Then mix it with the tomato juice and some salt, can it in quart jars, and drink it all year.
We've never tried using the juicer for tomatoes, but I'd think it would work. But you'd have to take it apart and empty it frequently. I think the Squeezo strainer is the best tool out there.
I've seen them at local stores as well. I got one for a birthday a few years back, not sure where they bought it though. I guess I'm not sure of the brand either, but it sounds like the same thing. They're well worth the money. The new ones are mostly plastic, but still work fine. I also have an old one that's all metal. It's hooked up to an electric motor, so it's the one I use the most. They also make different strainers for berries and such.
The second one there, the Roma, is the one I have. I was thinking it was almost all plastic, but it's just a few pieces that are plastic. It's been a while since I've used it. If you plan to do much sauce at all, one of those are well worth the money.
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My mother used a cone shped collander with a wood pestle to scweeze the juice out
I still have one of those as well, and remember using it as a kid. It doesn't get much use these days.
I use what I have always referred to as a Victorio Strainer although it may be like what some refer to as a food mill. I have used mine for nearly 20 years and it is still as good as new. It is like this one pictured below.
Tomato Juice (use a food mill?)
Tomato Juice (use a food mill?)
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