# Tomato sauce..uggh!



## TNbear23 (May 31, 2014)

Every batch of tomato sauce I have made turns out thin. :grit: I am following the recipe exact and using mostly roma tomatoes. What gives? Should I do something else in order to get it thick?  I am getting so frustrated!


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## arrocks (Oct 26, 2011)

Thin is just too much water left in it so not cooked long enough.

Just cook it down to the consistency you want is the usual approach. It takes a long time, hours in most cases. Some prefer to roast their tomatoes first to get rid of some of the water and some will chop them and then let them drain in the colander for a couple hours before processing.

I prefer to juice them all and then let the juice sit overnight in the fridge until it separates. Then pour off the clear liquid on top and cook the rest until it is the thickness I want.


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## TNbear23 (May 31, 2014)

I left a batch in a slow cooker overnight and still it didn't thicken. Might have to try the strainer.


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## RichNC (Aug 22, 2014)

TNbear23 said:


> I left a batch in a slow cooker overnight and still it didn't thicken. Might have to try the strainer.


A slow cooker is not getting hot enough to let off enough steam to reduce the water. Plus you probably have a lid on it so the steam the does come off just runs back into the sauce.


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## arrocks (Oct 26, 2011)

Slow cookers never reach high enough temperature IME to actually cook it down. What may take 2-3 hours on the stove can take 8-10 hours in a slo cooker. You need a good soft boil to evaporate water out at any rate.


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## pmondo (Oct 6, 2007)

cut tomatoes in half freeze then place from on tray with pot or pan under it when they thew water will leave then the cook in pot long time


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Turkey roaster works well. Big roasting pan with 3-4" of tomatoes, on range or in oven.

We roast the chopped tomatoes then run them through sieve to get rid of skins, then cook them off to desired thickness. Otherwise peel and cook down....James


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## mzgarden (Mar 16, 2012)

I do this similarly to pmondo. I pick, wash, core and cut an x in the bottom of the tomato. Toss in freezer bags, freeze. Remove from freezer and allow to thaw. Sometimes I open the zipper on the bag an inch, turn the bag upside down in a collander to thaw. If I am thawing a bunch I just thaw and pour off the water/seeds. You can save the tomato water (without seeds) for future soups if you like.
Once the tomato has been frozen/thawed, it's easy to squish off the skin. Most of the water is now gone so it's much much faster to cook down to a thicker sauce.
If I need to, I put the tomato that's left into a big roaster pan in the oven overnight on very low temp without a lid, add herbs the next day. Gotta be careful though, now that so much of the liquid is gone, it's easy to scorch the thickened sauce.


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## TNbear23 (May 31, 2014)

RichNC said:


> A slow cooker is not getting hot enough to let off enough steam to reduce the water. Plus you probably have a lid on it so the steam the does come off just runs back into the sauce.


Didn't think about that, well that explains it not working. :smack



pmondo said:


> cut tomatoes in half freeze then place from on tray with pot or pan under it when they thew water will leave then the cook in pot long time


Because I have a smaller garden I have to freeze my tomatoes in order to have enough. I place them on a cookie sheet to thaw and pour the water off. I even poured the water/juice off from the bowl I was placing them in. So if I am understanding everyone correctly the best way to thicken is to cook slow but be sure to allow the steam to escape and this may take a very, very long time. I guess I was expecting it to happen faster because I was using paste tomatoes. I figure I will just add paste to the sauce when I use it. everything is a learning process. Thanks so much everyone for the advice.


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## Werforpsu (Aug 8, 2013)

I used to put a roasting pan in oven and 'dehydrate' my sauce. Now i use an electric roaster and cook it w the lid cracked to let out moisture. I havent had any scorching problems with the roaster like you would have on the stove. 

I also add commercially canned tomato paste because i am impatient.


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

We put the Roma tomato halves (or quarters if they're big), peppers, onions and garlic toes on a roasting pan in a roasting pan on the grill for something around 30 minutes at around 400 degrees to get the process started. The grill is way more open than most ovens and allows a lot more steam to escape. Letting them in too long will see the mixture start to burn. Not letting it in long enough will see lots of water in the pans. We try to get them out when there's just a little bit of liquid left but not much.

Next comes the mill.

(Just one of these or similar http://www.homedepot.com/p/Prago-Ro...gclid=CNyD8qakgs8CFUFkhgodKvwOxg&gclsrc=aw.ds

Once the mix comes out of the grill, it goes into the mill. The water that's left tends to run down into the mill first and is pretty easy to separate out before collecting the main meat of the sauce. Running the crank slowly before starting to push the tomatoes through and moving the mixture around with a spoon gets a bunch of the water down through the thing easily. It's collected in a bowl and tossed if not wanted for some kind of stock. (It works well for cooking with rice, maybe some other things. But it's not something we keep for the sauce.) Once enough of the liquid is separated, then the sauce is collected and put into a stock pot.

When we have a stock pot that has either 7 or 14 quarts of the output of the mill (because we have 2 pressure canners), the sauce gets put on the stove and a few more things added to taste, such as salt, sugar, basil, oregano, fennel, black pepper, whatever trips your trigger. It only stays on the stove long enough to see those last flavors mixed in well and to get the taste where we want it. 

Just did 53 quarts over the holiday weekend. That's a lot of work for 4 people in one day with limited equipment but we got 'er done. We had gotten 5 bushels of tomatoes and it really did take all day. But it's some REALLY GOOD sauce!

Just our method.


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## mosepijo (Oct 21, 2008)

I run them thru my squeezo strainer, pour the juice in gallon jars and refrigerate overnight, after it separates, I dip off the clear part on the top and then cook down the rest. Doesn't take long at all because you have gotten rid of most of the water.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

TNbear23 said:


> Every batch of tomato sauce I have made turns out thin. :grit: I am following the recipe exact and using mostly roma tomatoes. What gives? Should I do something else in order to get it thick?  I am getting so frustrated!


Simmer it longer, without a lid so the steam (excess water) can escape. It usually takes a couple of hours at least.


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## Marcia in MT (May 11, 2002)

After I make the puree (sauce), I put it in a fine-mesh sieve to drain off the extra liquid, until it's as thick as I'd like. Then proceed to canning. This way, I don't have to cook it down forever (and risk scorching, as I have done).

Things are different now, though. I put the tomatoes in a steam juicer, which pulls out the liquid and leaves me the solids. I then run them through a separator (seeds and skins out one end, puree out the other) and the result is already thick enough to can without separating. We can the juice too, as I use it in soups and as the broth for making filled cabbage.


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