View Single Post
Old October 13, 2018   #9
ContainerTed
Tomatovillian™
 
ContainerTed's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: 6a - NE Tennessee
Posts: 4,538
Default Here's the pictures to go with the post above

Okay, here's the rig I use. I mount the BTB mill on one of our old cutting boards. I add in a small block of wood to raise it up to fit the height of my bowls. I also use a couple of clamps to hold everything together as one unit over the double sink.

DSCF0001.JPG

This is the hopper where you put the tomato chunks. The hole is the driver for how large or small the chunks should be.

DSCF0002.JPG

Here's how I have my chunks before they go into the hopper. Staging them this way allows me to do a lot of cutting up before I have to squeeze out the juice.

DSCF0003.JPG

This blue (cheap) spoon is one that I use a lot. It moves the chunks to the hopper. And it also is my primary stirring instrument. By moving it sideways in the reduction pot, I can create a better stirring turbulence in the deep pot.

DSCF0004.JPG

When everything is operating, this is the view of the process. The skins and seeds go out the left and the good stuff comes into the collection bowl.

DSCF0005.JPG

Skins and seeds will be run at least a second time to make sure no meat or juice is missed.

DSCF0006.JPG

If you want to recover seeds from this process, you must have all the tomatoes to be of the same variety. Otherwise, you'll have no way of knowing which seed is what variety. The BTB mill will get all the meat. The skins are so clean that you can easily tell if the skin is yellow or pink.

DSCF0007.JPG

However, if you do only one variety, when you get done cranking, you can add water to the waste of skins and seeds and by pouring off the skins, the seeds are left and I have not found any problem with viability.

DSCF0008.JPG

That's it. Now the juice is reduced and it goes into jars and is canned. I always take the pressure up to 15-18 PSI for about 5 minutes in addition to the normal recommended canning times. This gives me reassurance that I've covered all the bad accidental possibilities in my sterilization processes.

Cheers, Y'all.
__________________
Ted
________________________
Owner & Sole Operator Of
The Muddy Bucket Farm
and Tomato Ranch





ContainerTed is offline   Reply With Quote