calling all italophiles...

[hedgewizard]

...and stoney!

I've grown a few too many tomato plants this year. Well, when I say a few...


Anyway, I've had a go at my first batch of tomato paste, and I'm horrified at how much energy I've used to cook the pulp down. Six hours, stirring frequently anyone? No? Tried leaving it in a slow cooker overnight with the lid off, but barely any reduction at all. I need alternatives, or the neighbours will benefit from my own foolishness!

[Shirley]

Would open cooking in a large flat dish work - either in the oven or on stove top. Six hours... what quantity of tomatoes were you working with??

http://www.obsessionwithfood.com/2005_0 ... 9211970151

[cat]

I'll ask my Brother in law later (He's a cook here in Bologna)
I Found the following reference in "Italian Food " by Elizabeth David
"concentrated tomato paste was made by drying the cooked tomato sauce in the sun" Might be a problem at this time of year!!!!
Could you try putting it in the oven when you're cooking something else?
I imagine it would dry out a lot quicker in there than on the hob.

[Stonehead]

I hate to say this, but turning moderate to large quantities of tomatoes into paste is a very, very, very long process!

I've done it once just to see if it took as long as the recipes say, and it does. From memory, it took about five and a half hours (lid off the pot) and fairly frequent stirring to reduce 50 or so tomatoes enough to bottle them. They made four pint jars. (The paste was also flavoured with red peppers, garlic and bay.)

I prefer to pick tomatoes green and make chutneys, or pick them ripe and make soups and sauces, then freeze them.

Making tomato paste is really only viable if you have a solid fuel cooker running constantly anyway and if you're inside doing other jobs.


PS We're making lamb stock, onion relish and bread and butter pickle this morning. Of course, the sun is out and it's a nice day!

[hedgewizard]

This was working with about 6kg tomatoes, around half our current glut. We gave up on the slow simmer idea in the end and just boiled it, so I hope it hasn't spoiled the taste too much.

So, given that anything ss has to be energy-efficient too, I have to reluctantly conclude that tomato paste isn't worth it unless you're running a range or suchlike, as Stoney says. I'll skin and open-freeze the remaining ripe toms and then bag them for cookery through the winter, but any enriching will have to be done with bought-in paste (where at least they can reclaim the heat from the steam). Now to look for an ethical paste maker!

As for the rest, I need to get my experimental fast-crop carrots in now so half the plants have to come up at the weekend anyway... so chutney a-gogo!

[Shirley]

.


PS We're making lamb stock, onion relish and bread and butter pickle this morning. Of course, the sun is out and it's a nice day!

Bread and butter pickle??

[Millymollymandy]

That's another name (probably American) for cucumber pickle. I've made two batches (so far!) = 9 x 75cl preserving jars.

[Stonehead]

That's another name (probably American) for cucumber pickle. I've made two batches (so far!) = 9 x 75cl preserving jars.

I don't know about the name. We call it bread and butter pickle because we eat it with bread and butter. It's the OH's favourite.

Oh, and I'm Aussie not American...

[Shirley]

That's another name (probably American) for cucumber pickle. I've made two batches (so far!) = 9 x 75cl preserving jars.

Perhaps it should be called... 'oh no not THAT one again pickle' :)

[Millymollymandy]

Sophie Grigson (cookery writer) says she thinks the origin of the name comes from the fact that they are so nice they can be eaten just with bread and butter. I haven't tried that yet but it looks like I might be this winter - like every day in sandwiches! Oh no, not that pickle again....