Question Which food strainer, mill, press, cold juicer to make sauce or jams?

[Mark]

I'm looking for an easier way to strain tomatoes or other fruit and vegetables when making sauces and jams does anybody have any suggestions?

Currently, I run my chopped tomatoes or cooked down fruit through a hand held sieve to remove seeds and skins etc but this takes ages and can be pretty hard.

I purchased a cheap hand mill the type with a strainer at the bottom and you turn a rotating handle on top whilst holding it over a container but it doesn't work as expected.

I was thinking that a good cold press juicer might be able to do the job but can't find much info of people using them for this purpose.

It would need to have several different screens for different sauces/jams/jellys to allow for chunky or more pulpy end products.

Any thoughts appreciated

 

[Mikielives]

I'm looking for an easier way to strain tomatoes or other fruit and vegetables when making sauces and jams does anybody have any suggestions?

Currently, I run my chopped tomatoes or cooked down fruit through a hand held sieve to remove seeds and skins etc but this takes ages and can be pretty hard.

I purchased a cheap hand mill the type with a strainer at the bottom and you turn a rotating handle on top whilst holding it over a container but it doesn't work as expected.

I was thinking that a good cold press juicer might be able to do the job but can't find much info of people using them for this purpose.

It would need to have several different screens for different sauces/jams/jellys to allow for chunky or more pulpy end products.

Any thoughts appreciated

Mark, Not sure if you ever found something to strain your toms. I purchased an attachment for my KitchenAid mixer and it works very well. I have used it on tomatoes and to strain my fermented pepper sauce.

 

[Simone Pennington]

We bought a "Gräfenstayn Steam Juicer" which my husband uses to steam all fruits for his wine- and jelly making. I don't know if this would be of use to you for your projects. A couple of years ago we spent 4 hours putting a massive amount of apples (about 30 kg) through a 6 Ltr. fruit press, it was a pain to use and very quickly tested the boundaries of marital bliss. The wine was not good. He used the juicer the second time and the wine turned out much better. My husband also made blackberry jelly. The first time he used the classic method of having the boiled fruit drip through a muslin cloth, the result was ok but not outstanding. The second time he used his juicer. 4,6 kg of picked fruit made 3.4 litres of juice. The jelly turned out rather nice with no loss in colour, the flavour is lovely too. Does that gadget work with tomatos? I really have no idea. Maybe it is worth a go? The juicer cost of about 60 Euros.

 

[bizhat]

Why would you want to remove the seeds? (or even the skin) - as far as I know, they are the healthy parts!

..well, for convenience of the teeth and texture perhaps, I can follow.

My two cents would be to continue using a massive cauldron OR find a steam juicer with different sizes of sieves - like > picture:


(and yes, I remember reading reviews for that cheap kind of mill u bought - total trash - even more expensive ones(!)

On a related note; Juice, (and the aforementioned cold press juicer):
For decades we've been using a steam juice extractor for our juices.. with equipment from, I think the 50s. But, I digress, normal procedure is to put the fruit/veg, whatever in with water at the bottom and wait for hours for the juice to magically appear. (Very time consuming!)
> this year I figured out a more efficient way to do this:
use a cold press juicer for juice and pulp (nb: the pulp can also be used to make vinegar) and mix both together in the steamer
--> overall time halved and more juice yield.

 

[Simone Pennington]

Why would you want to remove the seeds? (or even the skin) - as far as I know, they are the healthy parts!

..well, for convenience of the teeth and texture perhaps, I can follow.

My two cents would be to continue using a massive cauldron OR find a steam juicer with different sizes of sieves - like > picture:
View attachment 5127

(and yes, I remember reading reviews for that cheap kind of mill u bought - total trash - even more expensive ones(!)

On a related note; Juice, (and the aforementioned cold press juicer):
For decades we've been using a steam juice extractor for our juices.. with equipment from, I think the 50s. But, I digress, normal procedure is to put the fruit/veg, whatever in with water at the bottom and wait for hours for the juice to magically appear. (Very time consuming!)
> this year I figured out a more efficient way to do this:
use a cold press juicer for juice and pulp (nb: the pulp can also be used to make vinegar) and mix both together in the steamer
--> overall time halved and more juice yield.

Surely this cannot be a forum where people are questioned on the value and quality of their equipment. Those comments may have to be reserved for the products review sites.

 

[Simone Pennington]

I was not done yet. My original post was not related to making jam but jelly. Also, I would find it very difficult to peel the skin off and deseed a blackberry. The apples used obviously were not peeled and deseeded either. We are all free to use different methods and equipment, as long as it works out for us. The item we use provides a good result, that is all that matters to us.

 

[bizhat]

Surely this cannot be a forum where people are questioned on the value and quality of their equipment. Those comments may have to be reserved for the products review sites.

uhh. what?
u lost me - where did I go wrong?!

 

[Chad Higgins]

I use the Victorio food strainer, hand crank. Works well for my apples, tomatoes, grapes etc.

 

[DivingTemptress]

I watched Pete B. who is still working out the best method to process hundreds of pounds of tomatoes this year ... this machine looks like it can do the trick for maters, but not sure if it would work for you jams and jellies

this is his vid demonstrating his method

Fabio Leonardi Mr0 1/2 Hp Tomato Milling Machine: https://amzn.to/2VB5t3U

hope this helps,
P J, the Dirt Diva