Tomato Sauce
Recently, while canning and dehydrating some tomatoes, I took a break to check into Facebook. It was meant to be. I quickly noticed a post from Northwest Edible Life about using tomato skins and cores to make tomato sauce. Really? I was interested. I had an overflowing bowl of skins and cores already and more tomatoes left in the box. Some of the tomatoes I had already started were mixed in with peach skins and other scraps heading to the chicken yard. But I was able to salvage some, and with the rest of the tomatoes, I ended up with a large pot of skins and cores to try the tomato sauce idea.
Thick Rich Tomato Sauce!
Basically, the article said you can salvage enough tomato from the scraps to make a thick sauce. Remember this is being made from scraps heading to the chicken yard. I decided I better not tell the chickens about my experiment.
I began cooking the peels in the saucepan. After an hour of simmering, I used the immersion blender to break up the solids. In no time I had a pot of thick tomato mixture. Now for the amazing part.
You begin to strain the tomato puree through a sieve or food mill. I started with the food mill and switched to a fine mesh sieve. The fine mesh in the strainer actually worked better but was more time consuming.
I wanted to get as much from the tomatoes as I could so the strainer seemed to be pushing more tomato sauce through the screen. I used a large tablespoon to push the solids into the strainer. It really was working!
The Chickens Still Had a Treat
Soon, I had a pot full of delicious thick tomato sauce. All that was left for the chickens was a little more than half a cup of tomato skins and seeds. I canned three pints of thick sauce, ready for dinner making. The chickens were happy with the seeds and skins and what they don’t know…….
For the full directions to making sauce from scraps, please visit Northwest Edible Life’s article on this topic.
Thanks for sharing this Janet. I wish I had read it earlier. I canned some tomatoes today, and out went the skins and cores. Too late, but next time . . . . ! ~Katie
I am amazed every time I do this now. To think I was feeding it all to the chickens. This way they still get some but we get more food too.
What a great way to use scraps!
I’m so excited to try this! I just got a big bin of tomatoes from the farm down the road and wanted to put up a few more jars of sauce for the winter! Thanks for sharing!
Shelly, I was amazed. And the sauce was nice and thick too. let me know how it works out for you.
Hi Janet, sounds like a wonderful idea, I did away with a bunch of leftovers that could have been utilized… but your link to the receipe “directions to make the sauce from scraps” does not seem to be working, can you update this article with it? I assume you add a certain amount of water. Thanks for writing about this!
Linda
Linda, the link was working for me, but I deleted it and updated it. I hope you will be able to visit the original post now. thanks for letting me know you were having the problem
terrific! Thanks Janet!
Oooh, I love this! I’m totally into this idea for sure, and will definitely be using it! Thanks for sharing Janet. 🙂
Thanks for the tip. Great idea! Work wonderfully!!
yay! I am glad it worked out for you. It’s a great way to cut down on the waste and make even more yummy food – Janet