Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Food, Drink and Cooking Seeding Tomatoes

Pho crying out loud, I never heard of it before. Sure would like to travel with Mr. Bourdain for a while, though.

(Or maybe just visit our resident swamp rat foodie with the surfeit of unsophisticated homespun American wisdom...)

Clean 'em off and pare 'em down and right into the food processor. Then cook it down. Add spices and other crap as I move along. I'll actually add brown sugar. Taste test is perfect. My wife loves to drag me to the Italian restaurants on Federal Hill (Providence) and the North End (Boston) and feels our sauce is as good as we get from the professionals.

Sauce disaster of about twenty years ago. Had a nice load of sauce at just the right texture and was removing it from the stove to cool and then process. This required about two steps and the first one my foot made contact with one of my wife's vermin (cat). Thankfully the five gallons or so landed forward but I found out just how much fun the ultimate clean up is.

Keys, it's the cleaning and paring of 25 pounds of tomatoes I'm trying to avoid. The big pot of boiling water and the sinkful of icewater to peel 'em and then all the seeding.
The tomato mill does it all in a matter of minutes.
The purpose of sugar in tomato sauce is to reduce the acidity, brown sugar has a little bit of molasses in it but it sounds like a good idea to deepen the flavor a little bit.
If you like your sauce a little bit chunky it's easy enough to add a few chopped tomatoes to the puree as it cooks down.

Greger that is what I avoided. I just wash them off and trim down the vine potion. I just cut the damn thing off - just whack a slice off rather than root it out. You lose a bit but it is quick. I stopped peeling them years ago when I didn't notice a difference. In fact I now use a blender. Take about a minute to trim down and process the tomatoes and then into the pot to steam down. The Brown sugar is something I saw on the cooking channel. I've made sauce this way - quick and I've made it the diligent way and seen no dif.

I use grated carrot to reduce the acidity in tomato sauce. I like it that way much better than using sugar.

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What a good idea, Scoutgal !!

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Thanks. A diabetic friend of mine taught me that.

I'm all about diligence in the kitchen. Seeds skins in the puree are just an unnecessary evil. Ask any chef and he will tell you the same. But I'm not trying to change the way you cook. I'm just saying that the Roma food strainer will separate the skin and seeds from the whole 25 pounds in a matter of minutes, no need to even stem and core them, just quarter them and crank them through. I'd rather feed the seeds and skins to the chickens than process it into my puree. When you make applesauce do you process the seeds and stems into it? I don't. Pumpkin pie? Not me. Grape Jelly? ick... peach preserves? Nope.

Yes, a very good idea...
but I find myself adding acid to my tomato sauces to sharpen the flavor... as an alternative to salt. Maybe unripe tomatoes have too much acid? Anyway that was my reaction to your comment

but if you WERE trying, it would provide the opportunity for a lovely discussion...