[QUOTE=semi_lucid;236113]biscgolf

Yes. I've always found that curious. A gallon of pure water, at standard temperature and pressure, weighs about 8.34 pounds.

And yet, a pint is supposed to be 16oz (1 lb), which would make a gallon an even eight pounds.


John[/QUOTE]

fluid ounce and dry ounce are not the same thing... fluid ounce is a measure of volume as is pint, dry ounce is a measure of weight... hence the comparison of 16 (FL) oz= 1 pound does not hold up...

either way it takes a ****load (local measure here in the sticks) of tomatoes to make a gallon of sauce...;)

This is a food mill for those who do not process enough to justify an electric mill. I've used mine now for 3 years and it's more than adequate for our needs here.

Back to Basics Food Mill = [URL]http://www.amazon.com/B2B-Food-Strainer-Sauce-Maker/dp/B000I4Y4PK[/URL]

This year, we put away 36 quarts of ultra-thick juice.

[QUOTE=ContainerTed;236135]This is a food mill for those who do not process enough to justify an electric mill. I've used mine now for 3 years and it's more than adequate for our needs here.

Back to Basics Food Mill = [URL]http://www.amazon.com/B2B-Food-Strainer-Sauce-Maker/dp/B000I4Y4PK[/URL]

This year, we put away 36 quarts of ultra-thick juice.[/QUOTE]
I'm getting old...I have the common veterinarians lament of "palpation shoulder" which is polite for too many years sticking your arm up something's azz. I had a hand crank almost exactly like the one you show and it did a great job I just had too many to do. Any of them are messy...a job better done outside or in the barn. I always find the odd tomato seed "stuck to something" in my kitchen, months after having milled mine (not that stuff stuck to something bothers me as much as it used to...:no:)

I got the Roma manual tomato mill this spring (with the optional grape auger, pumpkin screen and berry screen) and have been quite pleased with it. I was able to do two flats worth of tomatoes (about 25 pounds) in about 45 minutes, including set up and clean up time.

I did one batch of roma tomatoes and several batches of mixed varieties. The roma tomatoes produced more sauce per pound of tomato after cooking, because the raw pulp/juice was less watery.

I also did two pounds of grapes to make grape jelly. A lot less work than running them through either a Foley mill or a chinois. Pumpkins are next on the list of things to try.

brokenbar

Have you ever tried mixing other varieties in with the paste tomatoes to alter the flavor?

If I remember correctly, you said something about the flavor of Costoluto Genovese changing during cooking.

Have you tried blending varieties to get a particular taste?

[QUOTE=semi_lucid;236160]brokenbar

Have you ever tried mixing other varieties in with the paste tomatoes to alter the flavor?

If I remember correctly, you said something about the flavor of Costoluto Genovese changing during cooking.

Have you tried blending varieties to get a particular taste?[/QUOTE]
I have probably tried 50 varieties over the years for my special marinara sauce..nothing ever came close to Costoluto Genovese. I particularly like the consistency. And the flavor does change 360 when cooked. It is really a pretty "blah" tomato raw. I use my family and friends as tasters when trying another variety and they can tell the difference (I give the "not Costoluto Genovese sauce" to unsuspecting neighbors...I am evil.) It took me about 10 years to perfect my marinara...maniac that I am. Nothing goes in my marinara that I don't grow ( all herbs, peppers, carrots, onions) except the mushrooms and the meats if I am making the non-veg kind for my family of carnivores.

And the real kicker is, I don't like or eat tomatoes...ever. That is why I have to have others taste new sauces. I was a chef at a very upscale Italian restaurant while I put myself through college and vet school. I learned a lot about sauce and what it should be. Texture...hugely important. as little water as humanly possible so as not to ruin the pasta,
bouquet...should be a mouth-watering blend of complimentary aromas with no one aroma being over-powering (did you ever think anyone ever put this much effort into sauce???) I worked with a older chef who came for Italy and he could wax poetic on the virtues of the perfect sauce for hours!

As I only grow paste-type tomatoes, dry, few seeds for my sun-drying business, I have probably tried every sauce type tomato out there. My "friends" say I just should "shut my eyes" and buy the Ragu"...heathens.

[QUOTE=brokenbar;236164]And the real kicker is, I don't like or eat tomatoes...ever. [/QUOTE]

:surprised: Not even the cooked sauce? Ever?

brokenbar - I am going to be trying Costoluto Genovese tomatoes this year. As you mentioned you kept numbers - approximately how many pounds of tomatoes were you averaging (roughly) for each of those plants?

[QUOTE=semi_lucid;236167]:surprised: Not even the cooked sauce? Ever?[/QUOTE]
NO..YUCK never even tempted

[QUOTE=Mandy97;236168]brokenbar - I am going to be trying Costoluto Genovese tomatoes this year. As you mentioned you kept numbers - approximately how many pounds of tomatoes were you averaging (roughly) for each of those plants?[/QUOTE]
I had to go look...I got between 16 and 23 pounds on my CG's in Mexico. My last year in Wyoming I got 10 to 18 (shorter growing season) The fruit was a little smaller as the season wore on. The plants are just covered with them. I break my own rule because I don't grow any other tomatoes that are not really large (except CG & RST, see below.) CG is medium-large but what they lack in size they make up for in production. They were also one of my first to ripen in my mid-season garden in Wyoming. In Mexico, mine were still producing like crazy when I pulled everything up in July, the start of the humid summer weather.

I shared seeds with a friend in San Diego County a couple of years ago. She lives way inland so hot, high desert clime. She says hers are the best producing tomato she grows. She also only grows them for sauce because they really do suck for fresh eating. She says her neighbors are always hitting her up for some and don't believe her when she tells them they are only for cooking (she says they all think she is lying and just being stingy!) My friend is also a fellow sun-dried tomato producer. She started a couple of years ago and says she can hardly keep up with the demand from restaurants. Lots more restaurants in California than Wyoming! I envy her because she goes to this close-out place and gets red wine for a $1.00 a bottle (we are talking really crappy red wine but for soaking the tomatoes in, it does not matter.) If I had to pick a second like CG, it would be Russo Sicilian Togeta which I also grow and it is one of my favorites. A tad smaller than CG and better fresh. It never failed to put out a crop for me in 26 years in Wyoming. Both CG & RST have very uniform sized fruit.

[QUOTE=brokenbar;236164]I have probably tried 50 varieties over the years for my special marinara sauce..nothing ever came close to Costoluto Genovese. I particularly like the consistency. And the flavor does change 360 when cooked. It is really a pretty "blah" tomato raw. I use my family and friends as tasters when trying another variety and they can tell the difference (I give the "not Costoluto Genovese sauce" to unsuspecting neighbors...I am evil.) It took me about 10 years to perfect my marinara...maniac that I am. Nothing goes in my marinara that I don't grow ( all herbs, peppers, carrots, onions) except the mushrooms and the meats if I am making the non-veg kind for my family of carnivores.

And the real kicker is, I don't like or eat tomatoes...ever. That is why I have to have others taste new sauces. I was a chef at a very upscale Italian restaurant while I put myself through college and vet school. I learned a lot about sauce and what it should be. Texture...hugely important. as little water as humanly possible so as not to ruin the pasta,
bouquet...should be a mouth-watering blend of complimentary aromas with no one aroma being over-powering (did you ever think anyone ever put this much effort into sauce???) I worked with a older chef who came for Italy and he could wax poetic on the virtues of the perfect sauce for hours!

As I only grow paste-type tomatoes, dry, few seeds for my sun-drying business, I have probably tried every sauce type tomato out there. My "friends" say I just should "shut my eyes" and buy the Ragu"...heathens.[/QUOTE]


Wow that's a lot of heart and soul into something you don't even eat! I have seeds for CG and Russo Sicilian Togeta for next year and I'm hoping to use them for sauce too. I think I eat more tomatoes in sauce than I do fresh and my kids aren't crazy about fresh tomatoes (older son likes them now and then) . I have some contraptions that are from ages and ages ago handed down from my grandmother for cleaning tomatoes...some sort of mills but they are really huge and I rarely use them. Then again, I don't make 3 gallons of sauce at one time, wow...

[QUOTE=lakelady;236173]Wow that's a lot of heart and soul into something you don't even eat! I have seeds for CG and Russo Sicilian Togeta for next year and I'm hoping to use them for sauce too. I think I eat more tomatoes in sauce than I do fresh and my kids aren't crazy about fresh tomatoes (older son likes them now and then) . I have some contraptions that are from ages and ages ago handed down from my grandmother for cleaning tomatoes...some sort of mills but they are really huge and I rarely use them. Then again, I don't make 3 gallons of sauce at one time, wow...[/QUOTE]
I made 14 gallons of sauce (I think...) I canned 48 quarts of marinara. These are my xmas gifts to relatives and friends (Thank God for UPS flat rate shipping!!! I will make my son tote it back to Wyoming and he will mail it out.) That is a heap 'o tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms, herbs and meat! The "giant crock pot thingy" which is actually a Nesco Oven Roaster that applies heat from all sides like a crock pot. It holds 4 gallons really full (says it holds 18 quarts) so at least I can cook huge batches and get done faster.

I have the CG for next year... maybe I'll have to find some of the RST seeds for 2013. :)

Thank you for the info!

costoluto genovese
 

I am always looking for the best sauce tomato. I researched CG and some sites say it is juicy? with a strong traditional tomato flavor, with tartness. Could you tell us in detail the characteristics. How juicy, how tart? I made sauce a couple years ago with Celebrity tomatoes, and it was way to tangy, not enough sweet. I did not remove the gel or seeds, ran it all thru a blender. This yr I used san marzano and opalka together and made a really nice sauce, not tangy, and just sweet enough. Doing taste tests this yr, I realized the tart in most tomatoes is in the gel, so no more gel for me. My method now is cut tomatoes inhalf or quarters, lenth wise. Remove gel and seeds, cook to reduce, then mil. If you reduce before milling, the water and pulp separates, and the water keeps it from burning. Last yr I blenderized to a smoth sauce, and it stuck and burnt easily. Plus, cooked first, they run thru the mill efortlessly.

[QUOTE=kenny_j;236180]I am always looking for the best sauce tomato. I researched CG and some sites say it is juicy? with a strong traditional tomato flavor, with tartness. Could you tell us in detail the characteristics. How juicy, how tart? I made sauce a couple years ago with Celebrity tomatoes, and it was way to tangy, not enough sweet. I did not remove the gel or seeds, ran it all thru a blender. This yr I used san marzano and opalka together and made a really nice sauce, not tangy, and just sweet enough. Doing taste tests this yr, I realized the tart in most tomatoes is in the gel, so no more gel for me. My method now is cut tomatoes inhalf or quarters, lenth wise. Remove gel and seeds, cook to reduce, then mil. If you reduce before milling, the water and pulp separates, and the water keeps it from burning. Last yr I blenderized to a smoth sauce, and it stuck and burnt easily. Plus, cooked first, they run thru the mill efortlessly.[/QUOTE]


CG is not sweet raw but gets very sweet when cooked. I do not find it overly juicy...the area with seeds and gel is semi-hollow. I have said many times here that it comes through the mill practically as finished sauce. Very little water and it takes much less "simmering down" than any other variety I have tried. It has a little tang to it but not what I would consider a tang like one would want in a salsa tomato. I was able to cook down 3 gallons in my crock pot thingy in 6 hours at about 350. I like Opalka but prefer it as a drying tomato. I put my tomatoes in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes and they mill easily.
I do cut CG in half. They also are not a tomato that has a ton of seeds. I am sending a bunch of seed home with my kid and he will offer it for a SASE in November.

My sauce "test" is that a toothpick should stand upright in it when it is thick enough. I only make marinara and I add peppers, onions etc so they do add a little moisture to the mix so I find it imperative to have the sauce as thick as I can get it before adding the other stuff.

And this sauce I make, this is a really heavy, rich sauce and is fine for spaghetti but would not be a good sauce for ravioli or lasagna, etc. It would be too overbearing and would mask the flavors in those dishes.

This is a "big jug of Chianti, big plate of spaghetti and some great crusty bread" kind of a sauce! I am headed to Rome the day before Thanksgiving and will be having some of that Chianti and bread!