"(Not) Shaken, not stirred."
Agent 014 (twice as good as Bond)
I NEVER touch a container of fermenting seeds. I let it do its business, usually 2-4 days depending on temps.
After fermenting, I peel off the "pudding top", transfer the rest to a larger container where width and depth are fairly equal, add lots of water, wait a few seconds until almost all seeds have settled, pour off "floaters", debris and most water, repeat if necessary until it's virtually 100% seed, transfer to wire mesh strainer (holes small enough to hold cherry tomato seeds), rinse under faucet, tap strainer to get off excess water, dump on folded paper towel, PLACE LABEL ON PAPER TOWEL THAT WILL NOT SMUDGE/BLEED/DISLODGE, dry for about a week, crumble/seperate seeds, place in Smirnoff nip bottles "donated" by local drunken litterbug, shake bottles about twice a week, for weeks, until this anal retentive seed saver is convinced that they are really dry.
I like working with as many tomatoes of a single variety as possible at one fermentation. With cherries it's easy. With beefsteaks and hearts, not so much. In a very exceptional year it can be 100+ varieties, about 5,000 seeds on average for a variety, for 500,000+ total seeds.