I have the Kitchenaid attachment and use it for both tomatoes and apples. It works very well for both, but I've found the apples work better if they are simmered a little first. Otherwise you need to put quite a bit of pressure to push the apples through. The hopper is unsupported from below and my unit has developed hairline cracks on the plastic where it attaches to the mixer.

I ran across a strainer attachment that would have been the cats meow for my meat grinder with a little (((adaptive engendering))) but for the life of me I cant find it anymore.:lol:

Worth

Okay, I just ordered the kit to be able to use the Kitchenaid mixer for straining tomatoe, etc. It'll be here in a few days. I'll do a checkout and rating on what I think. I started to do the $40 offering, but it was "refurbished" and that means my high school girlfriend and wife of 54 years will not accept it. So, I got a new one and life at the Muddy Bucket Farm can continue to be calm and sweet. :)

[QUOTE=ContainerTed;717051]Okay, I just ordered the kit to be able to use the Kitchenaid mixer for straining tomatoe, etc. It'll be here in a few days. I'll do a checkout and rating on what I think. I started to do the $40 offering, but it was "refurbished" and that means my high school girlfriend and wife of 54 years will not accept it. So, I got a new one and life at the Muddy Bucket Farm can continue to be calm and sweet. :)[/QUOTE]
I got the kitchenAid 6 quart Professional in the refurbished outlet section and love it for a fraction of the cost.
Well a (( fraction)) of the cost could be 1 cent less but you know what I mean. :lol:
And I also know what you mean too. ;)
Worth

Ted just wondering? if the unit seperates the skins and seeds from the juice and pulp, why do you take the time to remove the seeds by hand?---tom

Tom, here's why.

Because I can kill two birds with one process. I save a lot of seeds each season. I can't save seeds from the juice process because I use more than one variety at a given time when making juice. So, I gather seeds from each variety first. If I can remove the seeds I wish to keep, then I can cut up the remaining "meat" to go into the juice process.

I also have seeds listed for sale on HeritageSeedMarket_dot_com. Go up to post #9 and read the description associated with the picture that shows my left hand holding a piece of yellow skin (which came from a red beefsteak tomato).

Each year, I save seeds from more than 50 different varieties. Some for seed restock, some for stabilization of new varieties I'm working on, and some from new (for me) varieties. By removing seeds before I do the juice, I don't have to reduce the "juice" as much because the seed saving process uses a lot of the watery liquid around the seeds for the fermentation process.

From the 4 bushels I bought, I still have about 3/4 of a bushel left. I am trying to save them for the Kitchenaid kit I bought online. But if I can't hold them long enough for that, I'll still go and find some to use in a test of the new equipment. Perhaps I'll do some beefsteak types and also some roma types from the local grocery store. Whatever it takes, I'll keep my word and show how the danged thing works - one way or another.

No, I won't let the 3/4 bushel box go to waste. I'm not built that way.

Take care, everyone.

lol, that explains it! , never brought saving seeds into the equation. --tom

Yes, I agree with you, Ted, seed saving slows the whole process down. As I've had Dwarf Project pastes from nine different plants in almost every batch I've run through this year, it meant I spent a lot of time sorting the tomatoes by plant, picking out seeds, putting them in little labeled jars, rinsing the cutting board and knife before moving on to the ones from the next plant... Really slows down the process.

Thankfully the fruit have been very consistent from each plant and I have saved more than enough seeds from each to send off to Craig, so didn't have to save any from this last batch. What a treat it was to just zip through them!

I hope your KA shows up soon. I don't do much baking other than bread now and then, but with the meat grinder attachment we use to grind meat for sausage making, and now the food mill attachment for the tomatoes, I feel like it's finally earning it's keep!

Thank you, Tom, and LOL here too. I do that a lot.

My New Setup Going Forward
 

Okay, I've got the Kitchenaid milling attachment and in a few words, "I love it". After reading many reviews, I went ahead and ordered it from Amazon. It was here in 4 days and that's with regular shipping. Total price was $58, and that's what I paid for the Back To Basics hand crank device I have been using for more than 11 years. I really wish I had done this years ago.

This setup requires both the Meat Grinder attachment kit and the Food Milling Attachment kit to do tomato or apple milling. A single kit is available which includes all the parts needed to do setups for both functions. I make sausage every now and then and I mill tomatoes every year.

1. From the Meat Grinder kit, you only need the main housing and the large screw-on "nut" that keeps the blades in place.

2. Mount the main pinion from the Milling kit into the Grinder housing part and then add the long feed screw and the screen and secure with the large "nut" from the grinder kit.

3. Add the housing part that comes with the milling attachment and you are ready to go. It's the part that catches the pulp and juice coming from the screen. It should hang somewhat loosely and you should be able to rotate it freely about the "Nut" mentioned above. You are officially ready to go.

Now, just feed the cut up tomatoes into the hopper and with the mixer set on speed position 4, put a juice catching bowl and a waste catching bowl in place as shown below.

[ATTACH]84638[/ATTACH]

One of the things I really like about this setup is that the part that catches the "squeezin's" rotates easily. This allows me to take a skewer or a spatula and get the thicker meat off the screen without any muss or fuss at all (2nd pix). And I was able to do 3/4 of a bushel of tomatoes without having to stop and clean the screen.

[ATTACH]84639[/ATTACH]]

The only negative I could see is that the feed hopper was a bit small. I had read ratings where the size of that hopper was a problem. However, there's a part available that can give you a large feed tray.

I only had to cut up the tomatoes slightly smaller than I had for the BTB mill. That's not a problem.

Anyhow, this Kitchenaid setup gets my unequivocal recommendation. I will have the larger feed tray and will retire my BTB handcrank machine. Setup was not such a fuss and was done in 1/4 of the time. I didn't have to be over the sink. My arm isn't tire from cranking. My shirt was not as messed up from squirts and drips from the hand crank model. Take down was easier. Cleanup was easier. I actually was able to clean the screen without going out to the garden hose.

I'll answer any questions you may have.

Could a person of my imagination and a lathe make a fitting to adapt to a bigger hopper?:)

Worth

Well, I would never say that "YOU" could never make anything. Here's two links that will show you what must be done.

This first link shows you what the smaller hopper looks like.

[URL]https://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-FVSFGA-Vegetable-Strainer-Attachment/dp/B00004SGFJ/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540060682&sr=8-3-fkmr2&keywords=kitchenaid+food+milling+attachment[/URL]

And this is the part that is sold to sit on top of that.

[URL]https://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-FT-Food-Tray-Attachment/dp/B00004SGFI/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540060562&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=kitchenaid+food+milling+attachment[/URL]

I actually thought about making something, but I figure that I'll probably make a purchase with Amazon some time soon and will simply add this to the cart.

Outside diameter dimensions of the tube going from hopper to the bottom and if any taper how much per inch in thousandths.
Cut tube in half and make adapter to fit over it and the top part of adapter connected to large container.

The only other consideration would be that cut up tomatoes are very WET. So, a good seal on all the components is a must. The primary problem with the setup and no larger feed tray is that some of the chunks can fall out of the smaller tray and land in the squeezin's which are directly below. The larger tray that is for sale sits on top of the smaller one at a 90 degree angle and basically prevents this contamination of the squeezin's with unwanted seeds or pieces of skins.

Now, if you mean to make something that will allow a LARGE bowl of chunks to be mounted and then fed into the hopper, then I will offer my vast years of analytical testing and quality monitoring to help you evaluate your new invention that could be patented. :)

Take care, my friend