Tom, thanks for the pep "talk" and additional tips.
Yes, the picture I show of my Victorio was taken with the Salsa screen installed just before I decided I wouldn't bother with it. So, I really did use the tomato and then pumpkin screen for the two halves of tomatoes that I milled.
I have read that tomatoes are on the edge of even needing the addition of acid. I also read that the use of a pressure cooker can further mitigate the need for acid addition. In any case, the lemon that I added was from frozen cubes I'd made a while back from a bunch of very acidic (to taste at least) lemons. I wasn't too careful in this area, but for the reasons I mention above.
Your explaination for the water separation makes sense, and I can see how the 2nd half of pulp (from the Pumpkin screen) that was not reduced at all over heat would have resulted in a lot of extra water in my mix, despite the heavy reduction performed on the first half.
I'm going to give this all a 2nd try this weekend when I'll try Lurley's method -- where I will strive to eliminate tomato water from the mix before Victorio processing and the subsequent, short heating phase before jar processing. I hope the whole process takes less than 8 hours this time, far less indeed as I am targetting 1/3 the mass of tomatoes.
--naysen
|