Hi i was wondering what is the best and easiest way to keep my tomatoes to use for soup (eventually!). I have lots of tom's and lots of soup already but want to make more for the winter but don't have the space to make more soup yet! Can i just throw them in the freezer?
Also apologies if i have posted this in the wrong section i was umming and ahhing about this one/greenhouse or recipe section!
I make a puree out of them, then: a) it doesn't take up so much freezer space; b) it can be used for soup, sauce or just bunged in a casserole.
Bake in a covered casserole for about an hour; liquidise & sieve; reduce by half.
I do the same and freeze it in little pots - one is enough for a pizza topping - two or three for a chilli or spag bol.
I just washed them and froze them whole. I then just threw them into the pan when I made stew or soup.
we have 12 lb of assorted tomatoes in the freezer, whole as I don't have time to make sauce :)
Only 12 lbs? You're not taking this tomato-growing seriously, are you?
12lb - you must have a huge freezer. Thanks for all your advice peeps. I washed/dryed them, cut them in quarters and put them in freezer bags. I have three bags of 1kg - so when i want to make soup i just need to get one bag out and off i go.
Thats gonna keep me going all winter - yummy.
Quote from: beanie3 on September 19, 2010, 19:10:07
12lb - you must have a huge freezer. Thanks for all your advice peeps. I washed/dryed them, cut them in quarters and put them in freezer bags. I have three bags of 1kg - so when i want to make soup i just need to get one bag out and off i go.
Thats gonna keep me going all winter - yummy.
got 3 freezers , all full ;D
** jealous **
Is it wrong for me to really, and i mean, really want a chest freezer - but we just don't have room : ( Unless i convince my other half that having electric in the brick shed at the bottom of the garden is a good idea.....i can dream.
I've taken over half his garage/workroom :)
We have done 25lbs of "tomato slop" ie roughly chopped and heated mixed tomatoes frozen in 8oz margarine pots then bagged. A bag goes for the base of a pasta sauce etc... Soup next! :)
No time for souping etc. either so I skin them and freeze them and that's as good as it gets. They get shoved in spag bol and anything else that looks like it could benefit from an infusion of tomato. Now giving them away wholesale, and my neighbour avoiding me like the plague. ::)
If you do not have any space left in your freezer, tomatoes can be bottled until you need to use them.
oh realfood - that sounds a good idea.
Now i am going to sound thick - how?
Have got a really good gadget for doing tomatoes. Saves time skinning and deseeding them. Wish i had got this years ago. Its called a Passata pulp machine and i got it from Ascott smallholding. I have nothing to do with this company by the way :D
I was looking to buy a Passata Pulp Machine and they want 22 quid to ship to Spain :o - that's the same price as the machine itself!
Quote from: elhuerto on September 20, 2010, 10:23:07
I was looking to buy a Passata Pulp Machine and they want 22 quid to ship to Spain :o - that's the same price as the machine itself!
We bought ours in France a few years back so maybe they have them in Spain too. A wonderful machine that gets rid of all the pips and skins.
I have just returned from France to a welcome of pounds and pounds of tomatoes. I picked the under-ripe greeny orange ones to take with us before we went and left just green ones which have now ripened. There don't seem to be any that are past their best. I am growing them all outside this year and have a wonderful crop.
I have been catching up with paperwork this morning but have to unpack the caravan soon as I have about thirty plants from French Garden Centres sitting in the shower tray. Goodness know when I will get round to picking the tomatoes.
::)
Hope I'm not hijacking the thread here but would you say this is what you have
http://www.pixmania.com/es/es/2051925/art/garhe/trituradora-de-tomate-tom.html
Cheers!
Quote from: bazzysbarn on September 19, 2010, 21:47:29
Have got a really good gadget for doing tomatoes. Saves time skinning and deseeding them. Wish i had got this years ago. Its called a Passata pulp machine and i got it from Ascott smallholding. I have nothing to do with this company by the way :D
What a brilliant site. Thank you for sharing.
So is it okay to pulp the tomatoes and freeze or do you cook the tomato pulp and then freeze?
Duke?
Passata machine are on sale here too....
http://www.seedsofitaly.com/catalogue/31
So is it okay to pulp the tomatoes and freeze or do you cook the tomato pulp and then freeze?
yes..you can..and you can sort skin and seeds (if needed to remove) once you cook it.
whoops..another try.. ::)
http://www.seedsofitaly.com/catalogue/31 (http://www.seedsofitaly.com/catalogue/31)
Elhuerto, that is the model I have.
I simmer the tomato pulp first before freezing so it reduces and thickens.
Thanks very much, ordered it earlier - hopefully get it for the weekend.
Could I just add a little hint to the tomato soup that you are all planning for winter, add 1 tin of supermarket value range spaghetti per kilo of tomatoes. It takes some of the metallic taste of the tomatoes away and gives a lovely orange colour. Also add a teaspoon of turmeric. I have made pints and pints with more to come. Topped and tailed the toms and froze, when thawed the skins just slide off.
I'm beginning to think I have too much time to spare :-X I half the tomatoes, spoon out the seeds, sit them upright on a baking sheet, tuck unpeeled garlic cloves into some of the tomato halves, drizzle with olive oil and roast them in the oven for about 40 mins. I then whizz them up and sieve them - then pour into containers and freeze. A taste of summer in the middle of winter.
Meg
ps - the best I have ever tasted cooked this way is Pantano from the Seeds of Italy - yum
I couldn't possibly keep all the tomatoes I need if I froze them whole, just not enough room.
What I do is to dry them, then bag and freeze. I've got a dryer, but you can do it in a fan oven at 70 degrees - it takes about 10 hours.
My dryer takes somewhere between 3 and 5 kgs of tomatoes.
I cut them in half lengthways and push out any seeds (use plum tomatoes, they have less seeds and more flesh) then lay them on the dryer shelves.
They are done when they are sort of leathery, and that amount will fit into a medium size co-op freezer bag easily. So in one drawer of a freezer I can store around 80 kg of tomatoes in this form.
Got 3 freezers, so do some puree too.
I microwave a bowl containing 2 to 3 kg until they've reduced in volume to about a third (takes a while) stirring every 10 minutes or so.
Leave them to cool in microwave, remove bowl, wipe down microwave.
Using a hand-held stick type blender, whizz them thoroughly then using a ladle rub quickly through a coarse sieve to remove seeds and skin. This gives about a kg of puree, which fits nicely into a litre tipperware box for freezing. I can get roughly 20 of these blocks of puree into a freezer drawer, so storing about 40 kg this way.
Beanie, I use the instructions given with my pressure cooker.
My tomato pulper arrived yesterday and I have to say it's brilliant. Probably have to be careful the handle doesn't snap but other than that it works a treat. I don't suppose there's any use for the waste (skin and seeds) other than the compost?
Cheers
You can do it either way Duke - I cook, bung em through a food mill and freeze coz I don't have much freezer space but you can just chop them and freeze them..
A use for the leftovers after pulping - dry in the oven and then use with parmesan to add to your usual bread recipe.
today's sauce mix ;D
Great box of produce you got there. : )
I just rinse my toms, then whip em up in the blender,bag and freeze. When thawed out I run it through a sieve useing a desert spoon to scrape the bottom of the sieve leaving behind the seed.
Then use it for making soups the easy and healthy way with milk and a pinch of bi-carb of soda. :o It really is good.
Log into http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4671/ Real Tomato Soup.
This recipe calls for a tin of toms, but use the above instead. In fact I have just made some for our teatime snack with a crunchy chunk of bread. :-*
Happy cooking to all. ;D
I admit to doing some home canning, and so far I have never had any problems. I use any glass jars, which I wash and put through the dishwasher and then I boil when I am ready to can. Then I make my tomato puree, with onion, garlic, herbs, salt pepper etc and once it is simmered down I really put it back on the boil so it is as hot as possible. Then I spoon into hot jars, close them then plunge them in a huge saucepan of boiling water, and boil away until I see the liquid in the jars bubbling. When I take them out I let them cool and check that the jar is sealed (that the safety bump has been sucked downwards). I keep them this way for several weeks. I try not to keep too long, just in case...
I understand that there is something called Lycopene in the skins of tomatoes which when cooked is thought to help prevent cancer-particularly prostate cancer. This is one of the advantages of the Mediterranean diet. My husband does not like the tomato skins so I blend everthing with a hand blender first.
why do people remove the pips ? i am guessing it makes the sauce or soup a bit sweeter but i just add a bit of sugar if needed.
I was told how to bottle tomatoes by one of our Italian gardeners and it is very much as above but I was told to cook for 2 hours and ensure the water covers the top of the lids by 2". There is a risk of botulism if not done properly which is scary but done as above we have kept the bottles for months and have done about 50 jars this year. We use an electric boiler but get up early and use economy 7 (night rate electricity).
My first post on this excellent site, sorry if I've gone on too long.!
Yes, this is why I always make sure that the liquid is practically boiling when I jar it then boil until I see the liquid inside is reboiling. That should kill any nasties. You must reboil the contents or it won't be sterile inside ;)
I did read a bit about bottling from jeannine. I thought I might have a go, then I read that it's not a good idea to do this on a ceramic hob, as the heat required could crack it.
I put a load in the oven with some roughly chopped onions (or and garlic) then roast them slightly with a drip or two of olive oil.
The whole lot then goes into a saucepan and a stick blender is used (about £5 from a load of supermarkets)
If you want to sieve the slop you can do but at that stage I put into shaped plastic tubs and freeze. As soon as the slop is frozen remove from the plastic containers and put into plastic bags. And lable them with self adhesive lables they use for typing addresses on that go on envelopes.
The plastic containers are the things which take up valuable room in the freezers so I transfer everything into plastic bags and stack.
The slop I add to soups, stews, used for pizza and pasta sauces, when I want them.
I chuck them in the freezer whole if red ones, then take out as needed for cooking, the skins just slip off as they defrost, this saves work as it is easier than before freezing and I think the skin protects them somewhat. Green toms I freeze chopped with skins on if I am saving them for chutney, frozen they are no good for fried geen toms as they are too soft. If I am making them into sweet pie filling with sugar and cinnamon etc I freeze green ones ready sliced, they cook quickly in the pies and are a bit soft but blend well with the sugar and make a sauce. Pie filling is crisper if made with fresh green toms though I have to admit.But then the cooked pies freeze well.
Pumpkin lover, I hope you don't mind me telling you but, your bottling method from your Italian friend, it is no longer considered safe.. Botulism is created in low acid foods, veggies, meat and fish for sure, definately not fruits but tomatoes are right on the border line for acid..this can be very simply put right with the addition of a little lemon juice,then treat hem as fruit. Your friends method is way out of date by canning/bottling boiling for hours .Itmakes no difference at all re botulism, you can boil till dooms day the water will still not get any hotter than boiling point so foods likely to produce botulism have to be raised to a temperature higher than boiling point nd you can only do this in a pressure cooker. The botulism is produced in the jar after sealing and thrives in an airless jar so a well seeled jar is it's dream home..but if the filled jar is pressure cooked to the required temp and for the required ime the spores are killed..however I repeat not at boiling water temp. You don't need to boil your jars for anyway near 2 hours, just add the wee bit of acid and you are quite safe, actually much safer than the 2 hour boil without it. Check out the link I put on earlier with full canning guide..it is bang up to date. The long boiling was a popular idea many years ago as was canning in the oven,and some folks have just carried on but neither are no longer considered safe . With a low acidvariety of tomatoes with no added acid you are likely to get botulism by preserving with this method.If canning veggies other than tomatoes, the acid is not any use and the bottles have to be pressure done.
Hereis the link which will explain in more detail what I said and also give you the very best help for canning/botling anything.This is latest updte.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html
XX Jeannine
Re your ceramic hob. I have safely canned on a creamic hob for years with no problems, the heat won't hurt it at all,you would be done in less time than it takes to boil potatoes anyway, excess weight might so I only filled my canner with one layer of jars(it takes three) when using the ceramic hob. Imight be wary about the tempered glass hobs though,,but not the cearmic ones.
XX Jeannine
Quote from: Jeannine on September 30, 2010, 16:08:55
With a low acidvariety of tomatoes with no added acid you are likely to get botulism by preserving with this method.XX Jeannine
Was curious about the *likely to get botulism* so looked up the epidemiology. Most uptodate figures are to 2006. 4 cases reported between 2000 and 2006 and all in products brought into the UK from Poland and Georgia..
http://www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/Botulism/EpidemiologicalData/botu010FoodborneBotulismLaboratoryreportedcases/ (http://www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/Botulism/EpidemiologicalData/botu010FoodborneBotulismLaboratoryreportedcases/)
For the USA the CDC reports 24 cases a year of foodborne botulism.
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/213311-media (http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/213311-media)
Quote from: Jeannine on September 30, 2010, 16:08:55
Re your ceramic hob. I have safely canned on a creamic hob for years with no problems, the heat won't hurt it at all,you would be done in less time than it takes to boil potatoes anyway, excess weight might so I only filled my canner with one layer of jars(it takes three) when using the ceramic hob. Imight be wary about the tempered glass hobs though,,but not the cearmic ones.
XX Jeannine
Thanks Jeannine. :)