Food mill for tomatoes?

[stephienoodle]

I've got 2 varieties of tomatoes (Principe Borghese and Black Plum) that I planted specifically for making tomato paste. I've got plenty of tomatoes... but I'm having a terrible time processing them! I feel like we aren't getting enough of the pulp off of the skin and it is taking forever. We've been using a mill like this and since it has done a terrible job, so I've pulled out my sieve like this. I've even busted out my juicer in a last ditch effort to speed the process after processing tomatoes for hours. Nothing that I've got processes at a speed that is fast enough to make homemade tomato paste worth it.

So I've wondered about getting a mill like this. Have any of you used one? Are they a significant improvement over the other types? Will I STILL feel like homemade tomato paste is a waste of time?

[lmonter]

I have a 70's Squeezo that I love, love, love. A less expensive Victorio would be just fine as well if plastic doesn't bother you (I can go either way, but prefer less plastic in this case, even if the parts aren't stainless and are a pain to clean).

I do tomato sauce, applesauce (think 200-300 quarts over the season if I'm on my game), pear sauce, seedless raspberry/blackberry jam, etc. If you need to make 30-40lbs of mashed potatoes in one sitting you'll love having it on hand for that as well. I don't do squash or pumpkin puree, but I know other folks do.


ETA: Tomato paste is a PITA from what I can figure. Takes me long enough to get regular tomato sauce without it burning. Apparently even my tomatoes here have been fairly juicy. Sauce is workable for me, paste is meh, I can buy it for cheap enough from Costco.

[stephienoodle]

Thanks for your input. I'm glad to hear that you love it so much!

Question about your applesauce making... do you core your apples or no? I'm wondering if I could just quarter them and send them through this thing instead of quartering, peeling, and coring like I did last year.

Oh, and have you ever sent cooked beans through it? I'm wondering if it would make a smooth hummus, or if beans would be too dense. I know that beans are too dense for my food mill attachment for my KitchenAid and actually stall the motor.

Come to find out, a local MDC mama friend actually has one of this kind. I was thinking that she had the foley kind, but nope! She's loaned it to me for a while to see if I like it. If I do, we'll probably get the one from Lehman's.

Oh and yes, I completely agree that tomato paste is a PITA. I have found that the crock pot is NOT helpful in cooking it down - it made a burnt nasty mess. I have had luck cooking it down on medium low in a frying pan (yay for surface area) and stirring/scraping often. I didn't burn two batches doing it that way, but had to toss the entire crock pot batch. I'm going to give the tomato paste another few goes and might plant more of my black plum paste tomatoes next year. I seem to get more meatiness from them, so it might help make it a little more worthwhile. If it is as miserable of a failure next year as it is this year, I'll just give up and buy cases of it from my UNFI co-op.

[lmonter]

The only thing I do is cut off the little blossom end - I don't like those little threads/pieces in my applesauce (I have issues, it happens). Otherwise, just quarter the apples, steam (quicker and less mess than boiling!), and smush. My boys love turning the crank on the Squeezo and have a tendency to fight over it the first few hours. Peeling and coring hundreds of pounds of apples with kids underfoot would suck, suck, suck.

And for someone who can't handle the seeds in raspberries and blackberries? It's freakin' awesome, and you do end up with jam with all the pulp and not just a jelly.

We're not a big bean family, but I bet you could use the pumpkin screen for soft beans.