The progression of tomato juice

I started helping my mom can tomato juice when I was probably about six. I remember I had to stand on a stool to reach high enough to use the stomper thing to force the cooked tomatoes through this really strange looking cone shaped strainer. I know now that it is called a cone strainer and pestle, Or it can be called a Chinese Hat strainer, or a Chineiux in French. 

The cooked tomatoes were poured into the cone-shaped thing, then there was a cone-shaped wooden stomper that was pushed around and around, used to scrape the sides down, then run around and around again until all that was left in the strainer was skin and seeds. That was scraped out and another scoopful of tomatoes was dumped in. In those years, we put up nearly 300 quarts of tomato juice. So I spent several days running that stomper. 

Then Mom bought a “Foley Food Mill.” Kind of the same principle, but the bottom was more flat and there was a flat auger piece that did the pushing around. It was attached to a crank handle and to scrape things loose and rework it, all one had to do was back it up a turn and then go back to cranking. I was elated, what an improvement it was, much faster and less arm movements. The Foley Food Mills are still available to purchase and for an economic tool they are wonderful. I remember as a kid that I loved running it. At least for the first day, then it was questionable

After Rick and I were married, I used the Foley for several more years, then I was introduced to a “Squeezo” strainer. It was a total different concept. The cooked or ever raw tomatoes were dumped into a big hopper on top, a crank on the side moved them through a wide cone shaped strainer with a hole in the end, the skins and seeds came out the end to be caught in a refuse container while the juice and pulp flowed down a chute into a pan. I usually use a five-gallon food grade bucket. I actually wore my Squeezo out, because it works for apples and pumpkin as well as tomatoes.

After wearing out the Squeezo I purchased a Norpro, a much lighter, more plastic unit, which still clamps to the side of a table, still works on the same principle, but is more plastic and less metal. I am not sure which is worse, the micro-plastics from the Norpro, or the fact that the Squeezo is made from aluminum. Oh well, at our age I doubt that either the aluminum or the plastic will kill us. My Norpro is starting to show signs of its age now and so are my shoulders. It is getting harder and harder to crank it through all of the tomato juice and applesauce that I put up. 

So this year I bought an electric food mill, same principle as both the Squeezo and the Norpro, but this one has an electric motor to power it, so no more cranking. Rick thinks it will make me less cranky and so approved the purchase. It will arrive this week, just in time to be put to work on the 100-plus pounds of tomatoes we picked on Friday and Saturday. 

Tomato Vegetable Juice

22 pounds tomatoes

No more than 3 cups of any combination of vegetables -- 

Celery, carrot, onion, garlic, green or chili pepper, spinach, beets. 

For V8 use all, I make V6. 

Simmer all together until vegetables are soft. Put through mill or blender, add 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice or 1 teaspoon citric acid to jars, and one teaspoon salt. Fill with hot juice and process in a boiling water bath canner for 50 minutes.