Vitamix and Tomato Sauce?

[pdxwindjammer]

Huntoften posted that he uses a Vitamix for making his tomato sauce. Hopefully he will see this and reply but I may just private message him if others don't chime in.

If I throw whole tomatoes in the vitamix and blend it all into smithereens to make marinara to can, will the seeds make the sauce bitter? I just googled and found this recipe - https://www.vitamix.com/Find-Recipes...h-Tomato-Sauce

I would love to hear of others with a vitamix that are using it to make sauce.

I have so many tomatoes to process after being on vacation for a couple of weeks and I am slammed with work right now so even the thought of the time it will take for me to skin and deseed all the tomatoes is making my head spin.

I have been making gazpacho all season and I make the tomato juice for it by just blending the whole tomatoes for a couple of minutes and it doesn't seem to make the gazpacho bitter.

Any thoughts on this?

I use my VitaMix for processing tomatoes and have not found that seeds cause any bitterness at all. Give it and try and let us know your outcome. Try a half or quarter size recipe--

[pdxwindjammer]

I am going to give it a shot but I don't use a recipe for much of anything!

I will report back once this first batch is processed!

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by pdxwindjammer

I am going to give it a shot but I don't use a recipe for much of anything!

I will repot back once this first batch is processed!

I don't even know what a recipe is.

Here is how I process my tomatoes.The simple food processor strainer removes all the seeds. I put the seeds from the food processor through the Champion Juicer to get all the nutrients, but this step is hardly necessary. In general, I am of the opinion that seeds should not be ingested.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?RJSIZ 17 September 2012 . Tomato Juice.Sixty pounds processed
Sixty pound of tomatoes was processed into 22 litre jars of pure tomato juice in two batches.Each litre of juice contains about three pound of tomatoes. The jars were pressure canned at 15 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature.Annotated pictures depict the process.

[TomNJ]

I have never found seeds to be bitter. If your sauce does, sugar should fix it.

TomNJ/VA

[Durgan]

One of my objectives of preserving is to avoid the use of added sugar in all its forms.

[pdxwindjammer]

I don't really use sugar either.

Durgan, if I ever make it up your way, I am going to have to invite myself over to see all your canned goods! I am amazed at how much you grow and preserve! How do you find the time for it? My busy season for selling real estate is all through gardening and preserving season and I barely get any sleep!

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by pdxwindjammer

I don't really use sugar either.

Durgan, if I ever make it up your way, I am going to have to invite myself over to see all your canned goods! I am amazed at how much you grow and preserve! How do you find the time for it? My busy season for selling real estate is all through gardening and preserving season and I barely get any sleep!

Your observation about being time consuming is very true. I am retired. One must be very efficient to reduce the time required. Even being retired I am cognizant of the fact that preserving is a time eating process. If my effort was any larger, I would have to procure more labour reducing tools.

An automatic food processor with a motor would help. Possibly a larger more powerful blender. I utilize the outdoor doors a lot, but a separate shed would be useful.

But al in all there is a lot of satisfaction about producing one's own food as much as possible.

[RobinB]

I just made a double batch (I filled the Vitamix container twice) with Belmonte tomatoes (YUM, by the way!) processed it until it was well-blended, then dumped it into a pot and cooked it down. Belmontes don't have a lot of juice so it didn't take very long. It was rich, thick, sweet and wonderful without adding anything. I did take part of it and cook up some homemade italian sausage, onions and garlic and add some fresh basil and oregano for dinner last night. I don't have a problem with seeds. When I eat whole tomatoes I consume the seeds although I suppose they probably pass right through (eew)...

[pdxwindjammer]

I just processed about 40 lbs of tomatoes using my Vitamix! For this process alone, this glorified blender is worth its weight in gold! It took me 5 times longer with my previous batch of sauce. Vitamix, where have you been all my life?

I currently have 3 big stock pots on my stove cooking down tomato sauce. One is all red heirlooms, one all paste tomatoes and one is my yellow and orange tomatoes.

Looks like tomorrow is canning day because I sure don't have room to freeze all of this sauce!

[kath]

Wow- I've never used my Vitamix this way because of reading that the seeds/skins would make the product bitter. Just canned a batch of Sloppy Joe sauce for DH today and ran the whole thing through the progressively smaller strainers of the food mill because the Victorio seems to clog up when I put cooked mixes through it- and it took forever! Wonder if the seeds/skins of peppers would add any bitterness.

I'm definitely trying this the next time I get a batch of ripe tomatoes and hoping it'll still be this year- hardly anything left standing in the mater patch.

kath

[greentiger87]

I've made curries with whole tomatoes all my life. When presentation matters, I blend them up. Never given a thought to the seeds or skins.. they definitely don't cause bitterness. In fact, when found out that most people peel their tomatoes before making marinara, I was quite perplexed. So much work just to lose some nutrients?

[RobinB]

My DH has gone back to school and is in the process of becoming a chef. He considers the Vitamix "cheating." He would rather make sauce the old fashioned way, but I had too many tomatoes for that, so I got in the kitchen when he wasn't home and made a bunch of sauce! I really like the Belmonte sauce and I will be growing that one again because it was also good for fresh eating. They are such fun shapes, almost like balloon animals! The plant was HUGE and produced a lot of fruit. It had time to ripen almost all before this weeks killing frost.

I also plan to try a green sauce made from mostly Malachite Box with a few other greens in there. I ran out of time, so they are chopped and frozen for later when I have more time (and when DH isn't looking).

[pdxwindjammer]

I am very happy to cheat by using my Vitamix. I am working on reducing the sauce down now and don't notice any bitterness. I am happy I am not wasting food by skinning and deseeding!

Before leaving for a solo camping/hiking road trip to Glacier NP a few weeks ago, I harvested a bunch of tomatoes and didn't have time to do anything with them. I stuck them into the freezer whole and I am processing those today.

Last year I made canned red marinara, green marinara and yellow/orange marinara for a total of about 50 jars. Just finished the last jar of it before making my first batch for this season.

Next year I am definitely growing more paste tomatoes so I am starting my want list now.

[Sun City Linda]

I will have to try whole tomatoes in my Vitamix again. I thought some of my sauce did seem bitter when I tried this before. So now, I have been seeding them before I pulverize but that is slower. Will give it another try next season.