Roasting tomatoes in electric roaster?

[barefootfarmer]

Who roasts their tomatoes in an electric roaster before making sauce for canning? My tomatoes are finally coming in and I've been dying to try this trick since last year. I think I'm just going to rinse, quarter and toss in on...150? 200?  Then once it gets thick enough either freeze til I have enough for a canning session or can them up.

Anyone want to smooth out my rough idea?  And by the way...TOMATOES!!

[wally]

interesting idea, we have been freezing all of the tomatoes to use in sauce and juice. My thoughts are it would also avoid scorching on the bottom of the pot. It would also make another large burner available for the second canner.

[terrilynn]

I do this! I don't so much roast them as use the the electric roaster as an evaporator pan.  What I do is put my tomatoes, onions, peppers, celery, and garlic in the roaster before I go to bed I set the temp at 250*-300* I have found that each roaster is different--some run hotter than others. In the morning I run everything through a food mill till I have juice.

Then I put the juice back into the washed roaster and crank the heat up as high as it will go, and leave the lid off. The heating elements are in the sides and the solids sink to the bottom so I have not had any issues with scorching. I stir once every couple of hours, until the end and then stir once every half hour or so. I can reduce a 22 quart roaster filled to the brim to about 1/2 in approx 6 hours.

I just wanted to add that I have 3 electric roasters and 8 crock pots. When I do a marathon session I fill everything up the night before (crock pots on high) and generally that will give me 2 roasters full of juice.

The end result is tomato sauce.  I have used this method to reduce my stewed tomatoes, and to make a thick chunky applesauce, and make apple butter.

**Just wanted to add..dont add any salt or seasonings until the sauce is all the way reduced!

[barefootfarmer]

Oh, Hurray for answering terrilynn! That is exactly what I ended up doing. Right now I just want crushed tomatoes to use as a base for my sauces later in the year. We love to make meatballs or add a pork shoulder to make sauce. I also have a vegetarian daughter so it's great to have just the basic crushed tomatoes, too. They are so versatile.

Funny about how many roasters and crocks you have. I'm up to 4 large crock pots and yes, I do use all of them. I was telling a lady about my roaster for the tomatoes and she's going to give me another big one for free. Score!

I'm thinking about just leaving the skins and seeds in the end product. I have a food mill, too. Why do you remove the peels and seeds? Is it just texture preference for you or do you see a real difference in the end result? Will mine get thick if I finish it by evaporating with the lid off even if I don't run through the mill?

[terrilynn]

I think removing the skins and seeds must be a texture preference for me. You can leave them in if you want to it wont hurt anything. I just like mine smooth I guess

Nice score on the electric roaster!!  Nice to get things for free and to build up the equipment you have to work with too!  I love multi-taskers. I have even used my electric roasters to keep hot water going during those long canning sessions and that left another burner free to run an additional canner.

Yes you can still thicken it without straining it. I have made my stewed tomatoes really thick and those were chunky.  I even did peeled tomatoes and sliced onions one year cooked down in the roaster, those were really good too, I just happened to have a year where I lucked into a ton of free onions and had to do something with them!  

I guess one other thought would be if you didn't have a food mill or didn't want to strain the tomatoes, what abut pureeing it all and reducing it that way? I only say that because the thought of big pieces of cooked tomato skin just doesn't appeal to me, but that's the beauty of making your own....we can make it exactly how we like it!

[barefootfarmer]

I do have a food mill...I just hate cleaning it! Maybe I'll run my immersion blender through and see if that will puree the skins enough for me. I was hoping the skins would magically cook down overnight. But I just lifted the lid and I do see some in there.

How did you end up using the onion and tomatoes mixture? I have a ton of red and white onions to make my way through, too. I'm thinking of pickling onions and cucumber slices. Also have a crazy amount of summer squash. Definitely going to make some zucchini/yellow squash and tomato sauce. Yum!

[terrilynn]

I used the tomatoes and onions in chili, vegetable soup and goulash, my husband really liked them and would eat a jar of them for  a bedtime snack...cold....uhhhh I can't really recommend that  lol maybe warm, but not cold!

When I had all those onions I also coarsely chopped them and froze some individually in baggies for use in recipes, and then I canned some with water and a chicken bouillon cube, (in pint jars) they were great for soups, stews, and casseroles.

[barefootfarmer]

Whoo hoo! It worked awesome!

Here's what I actually did:
22lbs of mixed tomatoes (romas and slicers)
Cut off the stem ends, quartered, tossed in the electric roaster. Put lid on and heat at 200-250 for about 4 hrs.
Gave a quick stir, then reduced the heat to 150,put lid back on and went to bed.

In the morning, I took terrilynn's advice and ran it all through my food mill. Then, I poured the mixture through a mesh sieve. I poured off 6pints of tomato juice. I held back the puree and canned it up into 4 quarts.

That was it. Super easy, super thick.
6 pints of tomato juice that I'll use for Manhattan clam chowder later.
4 quarts of very thick crushed tomatoes.

Come on tomatoes...I want more, more, more!

[horseyrider]

Woot! Threads like this is what makes this site so AWESOME! What a terrific idea!!!

[cindy]

Thanks everyone for the ideas.... I have never used a roaster for anything like this.

[Callie]

I did it for the first time this year and LOVED it. It works so much better if you use paste tomatoes...so next year....tons of pastes are going in the ground and only a couple slicers.

[Deleted]

The last 2 yrs this is the only way I do my tomatoes- My friend gave me an older stainless steel Vitamix- from the 80's I puree them in that then pour in the 18 quart roaster- cook it down until there is about half left- no need to add paste and the house smells awesome LOL-
I add my seasonings at the beginning then double check them once it is good and hot

[Deleted]

Awesome idea!!! I have a 2 cent tip.  I make salsa and pizza sauce and in my opinion only, if i leave the seeds, white core, and clear goo OUT of the tomatoes before milling them the end product definately tastes different. Mind you I a not telling you that you should do the same because it sounds like you have a winning reciepe going. I enter my stuff at local contests and many folks will ask to buy a few jars now and then, If you taste the white core and clear goo and seeds you will notice how bitter thay are. TO me It seems I shoudnt have those in my finished product. I know that my product is a MUCH richer red than the competitors.

[barefootfarmer]

@doingitmyself that's a great tip, thanks for sharing. So far I've only been canning the really meaty tomatoes, but I think I know what you mean about the varieties with the clear goo. I'll be moving into those guys pretty soon. I haven't made any pizza sauce yet. So far all my crushed tomatoes (hit the 100 quart jar mark! yahoo!) will be used for what we call Italian sauce.

I think when I'm ready to move to the next phase I'll use the smaller screen that keeps the seeds out of the finished product. Glad you reminded me about that.

Also- I did a double take when I saw your edit- "Word Salad" I haven't seen many people use that phrase since back in my days on the psychiatric rotation at the hospital. I still use it and I thought only my family knew what I meant

LOL- and to clarify- I wasn't a patient...