I figure I have to chop up the tomatoes into a big pot, bring it to the boil to get the juice moving then ladle them into The Machine - remembering to put some juice through first like the lady at the shop said (loudly, several times, cos my Italian isn't good).

I then turn the handle on The Machine and out pops the tomatoes minus the skins and seeds. Then I pour the good stuff into another pot and cook it? Is that it? Can I put in some of the nice fresh basil we have? I have rosemary bushes too...

Then what? I want to re-use some ordinary jars and lids (jam, pasta sauce) not Vacola jars. How does everyone clean and sterilise them? Then I can process them in the Vacola?

Help!
Amanda

There are two ways to make the pasta sauce and both are almost identical.

1. Normal sauce - cut tomatoes in half and bring to boil. Then pass through The Machine, separating the pulp from the skin and seed. We add a fist-full of salt to every 10 kgs. This is then bottled with basil, oregano etc to taste. Put the basil and oregano in the bottle first.

2. Cooked sauce - is similar to what you have explained above. The difference from normal is that prior to bottling it you cook it on the stove for about 1hr. We add other (pre-simmered) vegetables to this like eggplant, capsicum and peppers but you put in it what YOU like. I wouldn't put any high-water vegetables like zucchini as they tend to just collapse over time and make the sauce watery.

Once both types are bottled you then put them in cold water bringing it up to the boil and then letting it cool down. If you have a vacola, check what it says. The method I mention is how we do it. We also put cloth between the bottles so the boiling water doesn't cause the bottles to hit each other and smash.

The difference between cooked and normal is that when you come to make the pasta the cooked one doesn't need so long to prepare (as it is already cooked).

Good luck.

(Actually, I imagine you could leave out the sterilizing process as the heat in the preserving unit would kill off anything that might still be in the jars. Just make sure there is no soap in the jars/lids after washing them.)

When you put the lids on, don't tighten them as much as you would when you fill them with jam. Tight enough, but not totally tight.

Place in preserving unit and proceed as you would with ordinary Vacola jars. Just fill up the water until it is a few centimetres above the jars. Don't let the water boil. But that's the same as with the usual jars anyway.

I have no clue where The Machine is concerned. However I always imagined you could throw the whole tomatoes in the machine and they don't need any cooking first. Or maybe that is wishful thinking? So disregard the last paragraph. :)

Good luck! Show us some pictures of the end product. Yes? :)

When I use the Vacola normally, I have to turn it to the Hold Boil" setting and leave it there. Doesn't that boil it? I've not actually taken any notice. Maybe I should get instructions for jam and do this in the oven like jam?

*Or maybe I should just go shopping instead. Much more fun. Then I wouldn't have to think about anything difficult at all.*

Amanda

Treat the jars and lids just as you would treat your Vacola jars and lids. Do exactly the same. Forget I said jam (you don't make jam??!!!!!???).

As these jars are (a lot) smaller than the Vacola jars, I'd say the water in the unit would start boiling sooner. My instructions specifically say NOT TO BRING TO BOIL. But mine is the foolproof unit. Plug in, put timer to 1 hour, unplug after 1 hour. However, the water in my unit starts to boil after 50 mins or so, that's when I switch off the unit and wait till the hour is over and then take out the jars.

So, it's all really easy. Forget you are using different jars. Do as you would with Vacola jars.

But do check up on that boiling matter.

Put anything you like in your jars/sauce. Herbs, garlic, salt, etc. It'll be processed well and you won't have to worry about it.

Actually I think I'll get warmed up on a batch of ordinary chopped up ones in the big bottles. Then while that's doing it's thing I can *think* about making sauce out of the Romas and figuring out the little jars.

It's not that I *don't* make jam, but rather that I haven't *yet* because I don't know how... the first step, I think, would be figuring out how to stop my husband and sons eating all the fruit.

Amanda

First Roma harvest. Ten bushes out of the original twelve plants survived to produce these. There are at least as many again but they're still green. I'll have another go next week.

After boiling them for about 20 minutes to soften them, we put them through the machine. The stuff in the white bowl is the skins and seed. I'm impressed at how dry it is - there's not much worth having in there!

The big pot is a 12 litre which is going to need reducing a lot. It's still going! Unfortunately I didn't strain off any water with an old sheet or tablecloth as per Pepino's instructions - and even when I realised I wasn't sure when I was supposed to have done it - before the machine or after?

I still have to deal with bottling the sauce, of course... but I did put through a batch of other mixed varieties as chopped toms in juice as a warm up...

That sauce in the jars looks great. Did you end up putting in any herbs?

BTW, I absolutely love your ducks!!

I can't freeze much cos my freezer is *really* small, barely enough to cope with week to week groceries. A decent freezer would cost a lot more than my s/h bottling set. One day...

The Machine was bought at Christmas but it was really a bribe for me not insisting on going to Rutherglen. Shamelessly corrupt I accepted the bribe. :)

The thing that did it though, was going through all the brands of tomato paste at the supermarket - not a single one of them was Australian produce. There were a couple that said "made from local and imported ingredients" - but what one earth does *that* mean? At least "Made in China" is honest!

Hi Spatz, I love my ducks too. I have real ones outside. :)

Amanda