Product Recommendation: Sauce Master Food Strainer

     As my garden production comes to an end, I wanted to share a piece of equipment that has made my life much easier.  First of all, I must admit that I can understand why our grandmothers embraced the advent of canned goods in the grocery store.  Having spent the last few summers canning the fruits of my labors out of my garden, I will tell you that it is exhausting work.  It begins with picking the produce; washing and cleaning it; oftentimes boiling, blanching and peeling it; cutting, chopping or slicing; washing the jars and rings; filling them with the fresh food; and tending the pressure canner for sometimes an hour and a half ..... you had better dedicate an entire day to the canning process.
     No wonder our grandmothers were willing to trade some healthy aspects of the food they served their families for a little convenience and extra time!  There is a price to pay for such healthy goodness, and it involves tired feet and an aching back.  But all my grumbling aside, I still enjoy the finished product and take great pride in my efforts.  That being said, I'm not above finding a tool or implement that will shave off time and make the experience even more enjoyable.  That's where the NorPro Sauce Master comes in.
     My yield of tomatoes this season was plentiful, and I couldn't wait to can a supply of spaghetti sauce and salsa.  But the step of blanching and peeling the tomatoes was my least favorite part of the process. The Sauce Master helped eliminate the drudgery of that chore.  It automatically separates juice and pulp from seeds and skin, with an easy continuous operation, which makes it ideal for home canning, freezing, and dehydrating.  You can use it for the production of tomato juice, fruit butters, fruit leather, applesauce, baby food, pumpkin pie filling, jams and jellies.  The best part is that there is no pre-cooking needed for soft textured fruits like tomatoes.  The Sauce Master includes a plunger, spout, standard spiral and stainless steel screen, recipes and instructions.... all you need to speed up your canning process.
     The following pictures will show you how easy it is to prepare your tomatoes and get either more pulp or simply sauce, depending on what you are trying to achieve.  The difference is in the use of the different screens ... a finer one will result in more of the tomato being discarded, while the Salsa screen allows you to retain more meat of the tomato and acquire a "chunky" consistency.

Tomatoes are put into the hopper.  With the Salsa screen,
skin is discarded into the pan on the left, while the meat
of the tomato is poured into the pan on the right.

Tomatoes are cooked with green peppers, jalapeños,
onions, garlic and cilantro.

Pints of Salsa after coming out of the Boiling Water Canner.

The Standard screen discards skin and seeds into bowl on
the left, and pulverizes tomato into pure sauce.

After adding appropriate spices, onion and garlic, I cook the
Spaghetti sauce until it boils for 20 minutes, pour it into
quart jars with a tablespoon of lemon juice and can it in
a boiling water bath.  It's beautiful!

          I have read some of the reviews on this product on Amazon, and I can honestly say I disagree with all of them.  I have found the parts easy to clean, the handle easy to turn, and the resulting tomato product had the consistency I was looking for.  It greatly improved my canning experience and made the whole process much easier and faster.  I am anxious to try and make applesauce and jams and jellies.  As far as I'm concerned, anything that encourages me to keep canning is worth any little imperfections.  And the more spaghetti sauce I have in my pantry, the happier I am!

Genesis 1:12   "The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good."