[ContainerTed]

I've often posted about how much I reduce the liquid and pulp after I cut up and run the tomato chunks through my Back To Basics Food Mill. Today, I had five big popcorn bowls full of chunks and it was time to make juice. My keys to reducing the water out and achieving thick juice is shown in the pictures below.

The stove gets turned down as low as I can get it and still get a very slow roll to the contents of the pots without getting any bubbles in that roll. You can see where the two eyes are set in the pictures. Our stove is a glass top and I really love it.

I used one 8 quart pot and one 12 quart pot and started with only about 1 inch of space at the top of each one. I actually thought about making this post when I was an hour into the process.

When I was done, I had 12 quarts and one pint of juice canned. This was a good run. The first three pictures show the starting point of the liquid in the pots (just above the rivits for the handles) and the settings on the stove. The fourth shows how the slow roll only keeps a small area in the center clear of the foam. The last picture just gives an overall view.

Remember, you have to keep the heat down low enough to get the liquid to roll slowly. This allows hot liquid from the bottom to slowly rise and give off steam. But you can't do a fast hard roll with bubbling action because it will scorch and/or burn the juice and ruin the taste. Patience is the real key to success. The reduction rate actually speeds up as the percentage of water gets lower and lower.

Hope this helps.