Prepare and Cook Tomatoes
At 6:40 in
Homesteading Food Friday: It's simple, delicious and requires no fridge!
What happens here
Place a large stockpot on a stove burner and set the heat to medium. Rinse the fresh tomatoes thoroughly under running water. Inspect each tomato and use a fillet knife to cut out any bad spots or imperfections. There is no need to pit or core the tomatoes for this recipe. Once cleaned, roughly chop the tomatoes into manageable pieces (e.g., 6-8 pieces per tomato) and place them into the stockpot. Use a potato masher to mash the tomatoes slightly as they cook; this helps release their natural juices. Continue cooking the tomatoes on medium to medium-high heat for approximately 15 minutes, or until the peels begin to release and the mixture resembles a chunky liquid. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
Goal: Cook tomatoes down into a liquid state suitable for milling.
Tools and materials
- Cutting Board — Cutting tomatoes
- Fillet Knife Gerber — Cutting tomatoes and removing bad spots
- Potato Masher — Mashing tomatoes as they cook
- Stock Pot — Cooking down the tomatoes
- Stove — Heating the stockpot
- Yucky Bucket Stoney Ridge Farm — Collecting discarded tomato scraps
- Tomatoes Garden Grown — The main ingredient for the juice