{"id":3495,"date":"2013-09-08T03:00:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-08T07:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=3495"},"modified":"2013-09-08T03:00:25","modified_gmt":"2013-09-08T07:00:25","slug":"q-and-a-cooking-down-tomato-sauce-steam-juicer-and-homemade-margarita-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2013\/09\/08\/q-and-a-cooking-down-tomato-sauce-steam-juicer-and-homemade-margarita-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: cooking down tomato sauce, steam juicer, and homemade margarita mix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cooking down tomato sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a question concerning cooking down tomato sauce in the roaster overnight in the oven. I tried this last year and it came out way too acidic. The same thing just happened again. I’ve read where cooking tomato sauce too long will make it more acidic the longer you cook it. I’ve never had a problem with this before until I started cooking it down over night in the oven. Can I save this batch? I hate to throw out 45# worth of tomatoes. I’ve added some honey and also baking soda but I don’t know how much to add. It hasn’t helped the taste but if more will help then I’ll keep adding more of each. By the way, I put the temperature on warm when in the oven.<\/em><\/p>\n

Joni<\/em>
\nSelma, Oregon<\/em><\/p>\n

I add brown sugar and not baking soda. Did you use an aluminum roaster? This reacts with the acid in the tomatoes and affects the taste. Mine is a blue enameled roaster and my sauce turns out fine every time. Another way folks cook it down is to use a crock pot (but I always have way too much puree to do that — even if we did live on grid!) or to drain the juice off with a jelly bag, leaving only the thick puree. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Steam juicer<\/strong><\/p>\n

I recently bought a steam juicer (Cook ‘n’ home) but was dismayed at the poor instructions that came with it. I downloaded a booklet for the Mehu-Liisa juicer, but the instructions there really weren’t much better. There was a chart that said how long fruits should take to cook down, but it doesn’t relate the cook time to quantity of fruit. And the stated yield of juice per pound or cup on the things I tried weren’t even close to what I actually got (unless I didn’t cook them long enough).<\/em><\/p>\n

Also, I was hoping to find specific recipes for things like cranberry-apple juice, giving suitable proportions of cranberries to apples, but there were no recipes like that. So, I’m wondering if you have any specific juice recipes you could share, and advice on how to know when the juice is “done” so you don’t overcook it and in the process dilute it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lynda King<\/em>
\nBolton, Massachusetts<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m still on a learning curve with my Mehu-Liisa but thanks to my friends Jeri and Linda, I’m learning quickly. First off, they tell you to steam your fruit for 1-1\u00bd hrs. Ha ha. I’ve found it takes more like 5 hours. THEN you get lots of juice. As it is extracted by steam, it is not diluted by the long steaming. I just cook until hardly any juice runs out the tube even when I tip the juice reservoir toward the collection jar.<\/p>\n

To make mixtures of juices I’d just add half of one and half of the other and see how that works for your taste. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Homemade margarita mix<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can you tell me the procedure for canning my home made margarita mix?<\/em><\/p>\n

Ann Hazelett<\/em>
\nLitchfield Park, Arizona<\/em><\/p>\n

I honestly can’t help here; we just don’t drink so I don’t even know what’s in a margarita mix! Sorry. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cooking down tomato sauce I have a question concerning cooking down tomato sauce in the roaster overnight in the oven. I tried this last year and it came out way too acidic. The same thing just happened again. I’ve read where cooking tomato sauce too long will make it more acidic the longer you cook […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}