11-05-2003, 08:44 PM
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Spag. Sauce Canning Question
In article ,
(Bob Elliott) wrote:
A clear,
yellowish liquid forms at the top, all the red meaty stuff sinks to
the bottom. If I spoon off the top liquid layer and dispose of it,
step 3 (boil down to thicken) takes a lot less time. Am I losing
any nutrients, taste, good stuff, etc by excluding the liquid from the
mixture ? Is it a good idea / bad idea ?
Any ideas ?
Hi Bob, you might want to save that top liquid layer! Below, is a recipe
from epicurious.com for 'Tomato Water', and if you do a google search on
'clear tomato', you'll find lots of recipes.
If you want to keep all that flavour in your sauce, but don't want to have
to increase the cooking time, you could still separate the water from the
solids, and cook them down separately. The tomato water will eventually
reduce to a somewhat thicker state, and it won't scorch.
Alexis
Tomato Water
Though this pale-orange liquid may not look terribly
impressive, its flavor is the very essence of tomato. In
addition to using it as a base for soup, we treat it almost
like lemon juice, adding a dash here and there to any of
our summer recipes that call for a little extra zest.
4 pounds vine-ripened red tomatoes (about 10 medium)
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt
two 18-inch-square pieces cheesecloth
Rinse tomatoes well under running water and quarter. In
a food processor purée tomatoes with salt until smooth.
Line a large sieve set over a tall nonreactive kettle with
cheesecloth and carefully pour tomato purée into center
of cheesecloth. Gather sides of cheesecloth up over
purée to form a large sack and, without squeezing purée,
gently gather together upper thirds of cheesecloth to
form a neck . Carefully tie neck securely with kitchen
string. Tie sack to a wooden spoon longer than diameter
of kettle and remove sieve. Put spoon across top of
kettle, suspending sack inside kettle and leaving enough
room underneath sack so that it will not sit in tomato
water that accumulates. Let sack hang in refrigerator at
least 8 hours.
Without squeezing sack, discard it and its contents and
transfer tomato water to a bowl. Tomato water keeps,
covered and chilled, 4 days.
Makes about 6 cups.
Gourmet
August 1998
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