Tomato time

What with the grotty weather we had this Summer, tomatoes never got really cheap. But lately the price has come down enough for me to buy a couple of kilo so I can make tomato sauce (p234) and tomato puree (p233). I had originally planned to do only the sauce, but I figured I might as well get both out of the way at once.


The full tomato sauce recipe uses 3.5kg of tomatoes, along with 1kg of apples and 6 onions. I don't know about you, but I don't have a pot big enough for all that, so I went with a 1/3 recipe. Even then, I had to use my stock pot.


I chopped up the tomatoes, apples and onions, and put them in the pot with sugar, malt vinegar, cayenne pepper, and whole cloves, peppercorns and allspice tied up in a piece of muslin. I was surprised that there was no instruction to blanch and skin the tomatoes, or peel the apples. It meant less work, though, so I wasn't upset about it!


The sauce had to boil for a couple of hours, so while that was bubbling away, I prepared bottles and jars, then got on with the puree.


This time I did have to blanch and skin the tomatoes, before placing them in a pan with a little salt - no liquid. At first it looked like the tomatoes were just going to scorch, but before long, a surprising amount of liquid had seeped out of the tomatoes.


I cooked the tomatoes until they were pulpy, then took them off the heat and pressed the pulp through a sieve. This process was a bit of a faff, but it didn't take as long as I expected. After about ten minutes I had a pot of thin tomatoey liquid, which went back on the stove for another 15 minutes.


Meanwhile, I decided the sauce had boiled long enough, and began scooping it into a colander and pressing it through. The sieve was also an option in this recipe, but having just used it on the puree, I decided the colander would be easier, and would result in a thicker texture.

The colander picked up all the tomato skins and a few of the firmer bits of onion, leaving a thick brown sauce that I poured back into the pot to boil for a couple more minutes before I poured it into my collection of prepared bottles.


The puree had not noticeably reduced down, but I decided to continue with the recipe anyway, pouring the puree into a couple of jars, sealing the lids tight and processing them in a waterbath.


I'm not at all confident with the use of a waterbath. I'd only attempted it once previous to tonight, at which time I made a total hash of it. I scanned through the waterbath instructions in the preserving chapter, and got on with it. The puree had only filled up two jars, which I placed in a saucepan filled with water. The instructions said the water should cover the jars, but it was too shallow for the taller jar, so I tipped it over and hoped the water wouldn't leak in.


After 15 minutes in the boiling waterbath, I took the jars out. I don't really know how to tell if I've been successful, but they seem to have sealed, which is a good start. Of course, now I'll have to find a use for two jars of watery tomato puree..

As for the sauce: it seemed to be a good consistency, but I'll have to wait a week or two and see how the flavour develops. At present, it's a bit vinegary. I'll let you know how it tastes a few weeks down the track - but for now, I have a tomato-splattered kitchen to clean and a pile of sticky dishes to wash!