100 Lbs Tomatoes = 6 gallons raw sauce

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My Son, who likes math (must be adopted..) figured this out. He says 100 pounds of raw tomatoes (before processing through tomato mill) equaled 6 gallons of raw sauce. Cooking down the raw sauce by 1/2 total volume (this would produce a thick sauce) netted 3 gallons of finished sauce, ready to can. He says he has done three batches and all were almost exactly alike as to weight and volume.

So 4 quarts equals a gallon and that would mean 12 quarts of plain sauce ready to can. He used only paste/drying varieties of tomatoes which translates to much less water content so I would imagine if someone was using any old tomato, it might effect the pounds to gallons finished rate? ( I SUCK at math...) Or would it not change the ration but require more cooking down time?

This is helpful to me because I keep detailed records of total weight of tomatoes picked from each plant so I think I can now look at my notes and figure out more accurately how many plants I need to plant to get my 100 lbs.

[ContainerTed]

I normally use one or both of our 8 quart pots for cooking down the raw processed tomatoes. Also, I use anything that's on the counter at the time I start things. My formula (so far) has been that the two pots, as full as I can get them and still let a simmering boil start, will yield 6 quarts of "juice" when I'm done. This is what I put into the jars for canning and can then make sauce or salsa from the concentrated "juice". The only thing put into the "juice" at canning time is some canning salt and possibly a conservative bit of sugar to achieve the sweetness I prefer.

I don't know what the weight of the tomatoes are when I start. I use some large popcorn bowls for the cut and chopped up tomatoes which have the seeds removed if I'm saving seeds from a particular variety. Otherwise, the seeds will be removed by the "Back to Basics" food mill. Six of my popcorn bowls piled high with tomato chunks will yield the two 8 quart pots full of squeezings to reduce down.

Let's see ..... lots of toms ... six makes 6 .... or was it ... 8 is filled by .... anyhow, this is like chinese algebra .... tweak the formula at the end and ....
Well, folks, in any case, it works for me. LOL

[tam91]

Is a tomato mill the same as a Foley Food Mill? Or if not, would the Foley work?

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Originally Posted by tam91

Is a tomato mill the same as a Foley Food Mill? Or if not, would the Foley work?

A Foley Mill should work, but make sure the screen holes are small enough to prevent the tomato seeds from going through. It also may be difficult to crank because you have to hold it in place, turn the crank and use something to push the tomatoes down.

I process A LOT of tomatoes (as in more than 300 lbs...) and have an electric tomato mill. I used a "Hand Crank" tomato mill for a couple of years but it took to long, made a big mess and was just a pain-in-the-posterior to use when doing more than a few tomatoes.

To use a tomato mill it helps to put them in boiling water for a couple of minutes before putting them in the mill and it also helps to cut larger tomatoes into pieces. My mill removes all seeds, skins and stems (I do usually remove the stems because they tend to get stuck coming through...) When you are done, you have a mix that can be cooked down to use for sauce or whatever you want to use it for. You can buy several models of "hand crank" that would be easier than a Foley.

[semi_lucid]

"100 pounds of raw tomatoes (before processing through tomato mill) equaled 6 gallons of raw sauce"

That would be 16.66 pounds per gallon. I would guess the raw sauce would weigh around 8 pounds per gallon, so that tomato mill must be removing 8 pounds of something.

Is it removing skins? Water? I don't know what a tomato mill is.

Edit. I didn't see the post above when I posted.

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Originally Posted by semi_lucid

"100 pounds of raw tomatoes (before processing through tomato mill) equaled 6 gallons of raw sauce"

That would be 16.66 pounds per gallon. I would guess the raw sauce would weigh around 8 pounds per gallon, so that tomato mill must be removing 8 pounds of something.

Is it removing skins? Water? I don't know what a tomato mill is.

Edit. I didn't see the post above when I posted.

No problem! The mill puts out the seeds, etc. on one chute and the debris-free tomato sauce out another chute. I get a big bunch of skins, seeds, etc that I have to dump. There is also some water in the debris bucket. I usually run the contents of the debris bucket through the mill once more and quite a bit of juice/sauce comes out of it second time around.

This is why I like Costoluto Genovese for sauce...it comes out practically finished through tomato mill and requires very little "cooking down" to reach optimum sauce consistency. I like a really thick rich tomato sauce for my Marinara.

[semi_lucid]

It surprises me that they loose that much weight.

That would be 33 pounds of tomatoes for each gallon of finished sauce. If the finished sauce weighs around 8 pounds, that means that you are loosing around 75% of the weight.

Half of that weight loss would be from the cook down, but still your loosing 37.5% at the mill. I'm guessing at least half of that must be water.

That must be a nice thick sauce, as you said.

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Originally Posted by semi_lucid

It surprises me that they loose that much weight.

That would be 33 pounds of tomatoes for each gallon of finished sauce. If the finished sauce weighs around 8 pounds, that means that you are loosing around 75% of the weight.

Half of that weight loss would be from the cook down, but still your loosing 37.5% at the mill. I'm guessing at least half of that must be water.

That must be a nice thick sauce, as you said.

It's even worse when you dry them...you lose about 90% of weightwhich is why sun-dried tomatoes are so expensive.

And if you are using just any old tomato. it's worse too. The ones I grow (and my son) are dry-ish and have few seeds. I had a friend who picked about 10 lbs of tomatoes and thought it would be enough for 8 quarts. She thought "a pound equals a quart" was a fair estimate!

Somewhere I read a table of "how many tomato plants to grow to have X-amount of finished sauce" and it was way more plants than than I would have guessed.

[tam91]

Thanks Brokenbar!

[biscgolf]

a gallon of water weighs a little more than eight pounds so i would guess that a gallon of sauce weighs a bit more than that...

[semi_lucid]

Originally Posted by biscgolf

a gallon of water weighs a little more than eight pounds so i would guess that a gallon of sauce weighs a bit more than that...

biscgolf

Yes. I've always found that curious. A gallon of pure water, at standard temperature and pressure, weighs about 8.34 pounds.

And yet, a pint is supposed to be 16oz (1 lb), which would make a gallon an even eight pounds.

I don't know if the organic molecules of the tomatoes would be heavier or lighter than water, but hydrocarbons such as gasoline are lighter than water.

This question occurred to me when I typed 8 pounds above, but I figured 8 pounds was close enough.

If somebody wants to measure the density of their sauce as compared to water, water weights 1000 grams per liter, which equals 1 gram per cubic centimeter, or 1 gram per milliliter.

So break out your graduated beakers everyone.

John

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A gallon of milk weighs 8 pounds. Okay...that's all the math I can handle...
(and I know this having had both milk cows and dairy goats...)

I thought perhaps there were those here who had never canned sauce and so had no idea just how many pounds of tomatoes it would take. And it also takes quite a little time to simmer 5 gallons down by half if the raw sauce is from any old tomatoes. I have this HUGE sort of a crock pot thingy and it holds about 3 gallons.
I simmer my sauce overnight on low with the lid off. If you use the stove, can't leave it overnight cooking.

Spaghetti sauce should be really thick or the pasta absorbs too much water from the sauce and ends up over-done and a little mushy. This is why you should never mix spaghetti with the sauce ahead of time. Al dente..the only way to eat it...In cooking, the Italian expression al dente describes pasta that has been cooked so as to be firm but not hard.

[semi_lucid]

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I started looking at tomato mills, and was curious what kind you have.

Something like this?

http://www.tomatomilling.com/category.aspx?dkey=1

John

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[QUOTE=semi_lucid;236117]brokenbar

I started looking at tomato mills, and was curious what kind you have.

Something like this?

http://www.tomatomilling.com/category.aspx?dkey=1


John, I have the OMAZ .80 . If you are going to continue to grow a lot of tomatoes and can sauce every year, an electric grinder is a great investment.
My Son also has this and has the grinder attachment as well as extra screens.

[biscgolf]

Originally Posted by semi_lucid

biscgolf

Yes. I've always found that curious. A gallon of pure water, at standard temperature and pressure, weighs about 8.34 pounds.

And yet, a pint is supposed to be 16oz (1 lb), which would make a gallon an even eight pounds.


John

fluid ounce and dry ounce are not the same thing... fluid ounce is a measure of volume as is pint, dry ounce is a measure of weight... hence the comparison of 16 (FL) oz= 1 pound does not hold up...

either way it takes a ****load (local measure here in the sticks) of tomatoes to make a gallon of sauce...