Tomato puree & thickening the sauce
I have two questions:
How do you make tomato puree from scratch? We use it to thicken things, but I have not found a way to make it and can it ourselves.
The second question: How do you thicken spaghetti sauce? It seems like we cook for a long time but never get the thickness of the store-brand sauces. Don’t get me wrong; I like the homemade sauce but when we tried to cook it for a long time, we end up getting a roasted or burnt taste.
Thanks for the information, and keep up the good work.
Donald Shifflett Jr
Pennsylvania
To make tomato puree, wash, peel, and core your tomatoes. Quarter them, if necessary, and simmer them in a large kettle until they are well cooked. Run them through a food mill or sieve to remove the seeds. I use a Victorio food strainer, which relieves me of peeling, coring, and de-seeding the tomatoes. You just run the garden-fresh tomatoes through it, the peels and seeds come out one chute, and the tomato puree comes out the other. Usually, tomato puree is not seasoned.
There are three ways to thicken tomato sauce products (puree, sauce, paste): You can gently cook them down in a heavy kettle, stirring nearly constantly as the product gets thicker. This process can take several hours if you are doing a large batch. Or you can set your kettle of tomato puree in the fridge overnight, then strain off the watery juice. This leaves you with much thicker puree. Or you can even run the fresh puree through a jelly bag. This also separates the juice from the thicker puree.
But, I have discovered a painless way of thickening my sauce. (I cheat wherever I can get away with it. I don’t mind work, but will shortcut where it works.) I pour my raw puree in a large roasting pan and put it in my oven on low heat overnight, uncovered. In the morning, this puree requires very little cooking down and, to me, tastes better than when you remove the juice. You might like to give this a try.
To make the thicker paste, simply keep the puree in the roaster all day, stirring and checking it every hour or so; more often as it thickens. You are dehydrating it, actually. When it is fairly thick, put it on the stove to finish cooking it down, stirring constantly. Use a thick kettle, as a thin-bottom kettle will scorch this type of food very easily. Another trick I use is to take a round stove lid off my wood stove when I’m using my gas range in the hot summer months’ canning. I put this lid on the gas burner and have had great luck with tomato sauces not sticking in rings on the bottom of my kettles.
— Jackie
Canning cream soups
Hi Jackie, I can a lot of things. I am wondering how to can broccoli soup without the milk in it to make like a concentrate to add milk. I also like to make cream of mushroom soup out of morels but it does not work out. Could you help with this?
Cindy Cassidy
Michigan
I have never been happy with recipes for this type of soup concentrate (cream of whatever). Instead, I dry my broccoli, as it tastes much better than if it is canned and either dry or can my mushrooms in water. Then when I want to make a “creamed” soup, I simply mix 2 Tbsp margarine with 2 Tbsp flour in a saucepan, stirring until they are well mixed and melted. Then I add milk enough to make a creamy base and add my rehydrated broccoli, chopped mushrooms, chopped potatoes, onions, or whatever. This only takes a very few minutes. Sometimes I’ll also add a tablespoon of chicken or beef soup stock powder for extra flavor, along with any spices I want. This way I can make my own creamed soup in less than 10 minutes, using my own ingredients, but not having it canned in the pantry.
The reason I haven’t liked home-canned creamed soup bases is that they tend to clump and separate, making a product that’s hard to work with.
— Jackie
LIsa,
I use both my wood cook stove oven and gas oven, set at about 170-200 degrees to thicken my tomato sauces. I set it about supper time, then stir it before bedtime. By morning it’s usually about ready to finish up. If it does get a little dark skin on top, simply skim it off. It doesn’t ruin the batch. I use this method every year and my tomato sauces are great.
Jackie
Amy Jo, what would you use for celery soup? Would have to be chicken I would think.
That creamed soup recipe sounds really good and I use lots of cream soup. I will have to try them both. Thank you.
Once you have reduced the puree, can you can it?
I ask because I tried to make spaghetti sauce last year and no one have ever taken so many tomatoes to make so little of something so awful. I was thinking of canning just the tomatoes this year to preserve them and then working on my spaghetti sauce using those jars over the winter. But if I could can the puree, it would use far less cans than canning chopped fresh tomatoes.
Here’s my cream soup recipe.
Casserole Soup Mix
2 cups nonfat powdered milk
¾ cup corn starch
¼ cup instant bouillon crystals (chicken for cream of chicken, beef for cream of mushroom)
2 tsp. Dried onion flakes
1 tsp. Dried basi
l1 tsp. Dried thyme
Mix all ingredients and store in airtight container. (I use quart mason jar) Combine 1/3 cup of dry mix with 1¼ cups of cold water in saucepan. Cook and stir until thickened. Add to casserole as you would the canned product. Makes equiv. of 9 cans of soup. Vary spices according to your tastes. Use in place of canned cream soups in casseroles or as a base for your own soup. Cheaper and healthier than canned soup!!
I can lots of pizza/pasta sauce every year and I use a crock pot on low to thicken my tomato sauce. This works like a charm for me.
Jackie
Quick question concerning thickening tomato sauce/paste. You mentioned that you leave it o/n in the oven on low. I realize you use a wood stove, but approximately what temp would you use. I thinking I could use my warming oven at 170F, or regular oven at 250F, but would hate to wake up to a roaster full of scorched on tomato paste. Thanks again for parting with your wealth of knowledge, sure gives me motivation to become more self-sufficient and frugal.
Lisa Basso
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