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Old October 14, 2018   #13
ginger2778
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Plantation, Florida zone 10
Posts: 9,283
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ContainerTed View Post
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.

Attachment 84558

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

Attachment 84559

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.

Attachment 84560

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.

Attachment 84561

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.

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

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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.

Attachment 84564

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.

Attachment 84565

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 this thread is a lot of work for you to post but I am thanking you so much. The explanations are detailed, the pictorial makes your technique so easy to follow. I am doing a bit if online searching for the processor, I will get seriously into it in November, because this is crunch time for me. (I have about 500 beautiful seedling plants that were pre ordered for sale, and another 300 for my annual Swap next Saturday.)
I am saving this thread to my favorites, again so many thanks.😍
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