Reprocessing tomato pulp through Breville juicer after making juice to make ketchup

I use my Breville juicer when making my tomato juice cocktail. There's always lots of pulp leftover, which contains lots of seeds. I usually put this in my compost tumblers (my BSF larva love it!),but this time I thought I would try something new. After I got 24 cups of juice, I ran the pulp back through the juicer twice (I think once could have been enough). That gave me about 35 oz. of a seedless, ketchup consistency tomato product that could have lots of culinary potentials. Sorry BSF, you're getting 2/3 less dinner.

Made 4 half pint jars of ketchup with the pulp I had left after juicing tomatoes, using boiling water bath method:

You'll need:

*4 half pint canning jars, 4 lids and rings

*35 ounces of tomato pulp after juicing
*juice from 1 medium onion and 1 red sweet banana pepper
*1/2 cup sugar
*1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
*1 Tablespoon salt
*1 cup white vinegar
*1 teaspoon celery seed
*1 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
*1 1/2 inches cinnamon stick; broken


Instructions:

Put 4 half pint jars filled with water into a boiling water bath canner or large pot (pot must be deep enough to cover the half pint jars with 1-2 inches of water AND extra room for boiling action), add water into the canner up to the top of the jars. The canner or pot MUST have a rack in the bottom to keep the jars up off the bottom of the pot. If you don't have a rack you can use jar rings hooked together with twist ties to make a trivet or even a folded dishtowel on the bottom of the pot will work. Turn on heat, keep water in canner hot but not boiling until after jars are filled.

Put tomato pulp in a stainless steel pot.

Using Breville juicer again, juice 1 medium onion and 1 red sweet banana pepper; add their juice to tomato pulp. Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1 Tablespoon salt to tomato mixture. In a glass Pyrex measuring cup, put 1 cup white vinegar, 1 teaspoon celery seed, 1 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves and 11/2 inches broken cinnamon stick, heat in microwave til boiling (you can do this in a sauce pan on the stove), strain out liquid, then add liquid to tomato mixture in pot. Discard spices.

Bring mixture to a simmer. Simmer, uncovered about 30 minutes.

Put into 4 hot, sterile half pint canning jars (the jars can be kept hot in the canner until ready to fill with ketchup). Leave a half inch headspace (space from the top rim of the jar down to the ketchup). Wipe the rim of the jar with a damp cloth. Top jars with lids that have been kept in a saucepan of hot water (below a simmer - do not boil the lids). Put on the rings that have been washed and set aside. Tighten rings until fingertip tight only. Put jars into canner water that is just under a boil. Water in canner should cover tops of jars by 1-2 inches, if you need more water to cover them, use the water that you heated the lids in. Put lid on canner and turn heat to high.

Process for 15 minutes in the boiling water bath canner (start timer after water gets to a rolling boil). Lower temperature as needed to maintain a rolling boil. After 15 minutes, turn off heat, remove lid and wait 5 minutes before removing jars from canner. Sit jars on a double folded dishtowel, out of drafts and cover with another dishtowel for 24 hours. Do not tighten rings.

After 24 hours, check the lids by pushing the center of the lid down. If you hear or feel a pop in the center of the lid, it is not sealed and needs to go into the refrigerator or be used up immediately. If you hear or feel nothing, your jars are ready to have their rings removed and be rinsed, dried and labeled for storage.

(Note: I lacked about 4 Tablespoons of ketchup to have the fourth jar filled ( that's why it doesn't have a canning lid in the picture), so you may want to start with a little more than 35 ounces of pulp or maybe not simmer as long as 30 minutes.)

Thanks for sharing.  What a great idea to turn the pulp into a usable product.

I've discovered a way to not only use the whole tomato for various products, but to save a lot of fuel in the process.  Every year I take a certain percent of my harvest, usually the first smaller harvests, and dry these in the sun.  We have a mechanical slicer so that's pretty quick to cut them up, and good hot sun and low humidity for drying.  Then when I want to make pasta sauce or paste, I grind up the whole tomatoes in the blender, seeds, skin and all, to a puree, and put it into a pot with desired herbs and spices and start it boiling.  Then I grind dry tomatoes into powder using the dry-container on the same blender (a Vita-Mix) and add this to the pot.  Instant thickening without hours of boiling down!  I grind and add till it is the desired thickness, bring back to a boil and right into the canning jars.  What used to take all day and into the night now takes a couple of hours.

I wonder if avoiding all that boiling helps retain more of the nutrients?

I would venture to guess yes on the nutrients, as well as by using all of the skins and seeds, just like eating the whole tomato, and unlike the traditional method of straining all of this out....

How fitting, must be tomato harvest season.  I made tomato juice today.  I use a champion juicer, and routinely put the pulp back through.  Then I put my hand over the out spout, and press down to force more juice out, but I just include it in the juice.

I never have enough time to make sauce.  Sometimes I cold pack quarts of whole tomatoes, but since I have to use the water bath for them, and do my juice without the water bath, it's simpler and quicker and doesn't heat up the house.

I do dehydrate some tomatoes, slices, and halved cherry and plum tomatoes.

I do add dried tomatoes to juice and cook to get a thick sauce, or just cook the tomato juice down, since I would be doing that in the winter (soup season!) when I want to heat the house.

I have a vita mix, and think I'll give that grinding thing a try.

Anne, Thank you for following along. For some time now I've been discarding a large portion of my tomato crop, unsure of how to best use it. I hope my frugal experiment here will encourage others.

Alder and Thekla, I have a dehydrator but haven't used it. It was a gift from me to my MIL but now she has no use for it at her age, so I now have it back. A solar dehydrator always sounded awesome to me, I just got my new issue of MEN, which shows how to build one. I could have tweaked the consistency of this recipe by adding a little dried tomato to it. That would have given a thicker consistency for sure, without compromising flavor.

Tyler, I have always heard that most of a vegetables vitamins are contained in the skins. Is this true of tomatoes? IDK. If it is, this is a vitamin packed recipe (and just like my tomato juice cocktail, I could have left out all the sugar because our tomatoes are so sweet and it would have been healthier). As is, this ketchup is a little thin in consistency, but has a bit of a kick , which I like. I hope others will try this recipe. The juicing process really does reduce the 1-2 hour boil down other ketchup recipes call for and it also gives you another wonderful tomato product. My H loves my V-8ish juice. I've never liked V-8 but I do like my version.

My version of tomato V-8ish juice, I've been adjusting the recipe for several years now, is now at a shareable place (I think). That recipe will soon follow.

And seeing how I've had a hard time with pests in the tomato crop this year and have had to throw so many away, I feel better about finding a way to fully use the tomatoes that I could keep.

If your climate is too humid and buggy to permit direct-solar drying, a car parked out in the sun makes an awesome dehydrator!  Just beware of mice, which can find a way into a car by various routes.....

I've got a car I'm not driving much, parked in the sun.  I guess I'll fill it with nectarines, since I just canned all my tomatoes as juice.

I've dried herbs in a pan on my dashboard and nearly burned them. The pan was so hot I had to get a potholder.

Another way to use the pulp from the juicer is in meat loaf.  I don't have a juicer, but when we have fresh produce I put tomatoes, bell pepper and onion in the food processor and make a fresh tomato sauce for meat loaf.  I use my regular recipe and just use this sauce to replace the amount of tomato sauce it calls for.

Anne,
That is a good idea. Another thing I have done is to finely chop the "stumps" of broccoli in the food processor to mix into the meatloaf. Things like that are great for getting kids to eat more veggies.
Today, I juiced a few more tomatoes to have the right amount for my tomato juice cocktail recipe and I ran the pulp back through the juicer twice. This I put into an ice tray and I think it can be used whenever a recipe calls for tomato sauce.

(PS: Thanks for the apples.)

Yes running the pulp through the juicer extracts much more usually because it becomes finer and more can pas through the screen. For the Champion juicer I drilled a hole through the pulp outlet that I can put a spike through this holds a bottle cap of various sizes against the end of the grinder auger narrowing the space to create more back pressure. this reduces the number of times I have to re run the pulp. The batch I ran tonight was grape and apple that I had steamed together and the seeds packed together behind the lid so I was getting everything out at one pass. Finally at the end I had to pull the pin to let the seeds out to get the last of the batch.

I have good success with dehydrating tomatoes, peppers and pumpkin/squash then whizzing it up into powder just before I use it. Saves a lot of space and weight on the shelf. My winter pizza then has the full food value of the whole tomato and pepper. and the greens I am able to grow all winter.

Hans,
That sounds like a smart idea. I'm not familiar with the design of a Champion juicer, the Breville (pictured above) is the first one I have owned. It sends the pulp up and over into the waste bin. But I like what you've done with yours.
Your pizza looks wonderful!

Hans Quistorff wrote: For the Champion juicer I drilled a hole through the pulp outlet that I can put a spike through this holds a bottle cap of various sizes against the end of the grinder auger narrowing the space to create more back pressure. this reduces the number of times I have to re run the pulp.

Wow, great idea!
Thanks

Hmmm... I'm all for eliminating waste and getting all our vitamins. And... I've heard or been told that tomato skins and seeds are relatively indigestible. I have two chef friends who always peel tomatoes before serving them. And my tattered old editions of the Joy of Cooking and other non-hippie cookbooks always instruct you to peel and seed your tomatoes before making a batch of tomato sauce. I am really new to processing a garden bounty of tomatoes, so I can't really say, but I do eats loads of unpeeled, unseeded fresh garden tomatoes of course and I don't seem to have keeled over and died yet. But all this peeling-and-seeding advice is enough to make me have reservations about making recipes using essentially JUST seeds and skin.

Is this peeling and seeding thing just 20th-century maniacal consumerist or haute cuisine propaganda?

My juicer is a slow, masticating one like a Champion but a different brand. It makes pretty dry pellets on the fiber end (at least on the 2nd run for tomatoes). Would these really, seriously make good ketchup? I think it's basically all seeds and skin by that point.

Is there a nutritionist in the house? Or those of you who've made this stuff, have you had any stomach upset or anything afterwards?

Maybe I'm not understanding the process right.

Which bits do you use for what and how do you preserve it? The tomato juice out of the juicer on the first pass, the thicker ketchuppy tomato goo from the 2nd and/or 3rd pass, and then the pellets/dry pulp? Is it just the ketchuppy goo you use? And the pellets go to compost or you BSFs or whatever? And that watery tomato juice from the first pass -- just boil it down into thicker sauce before canning?

PS since I've got a big, half empty deep freeze and very little time, I'm thinking of just freezing rather than legitimate canning. Any downsides?

Edited for faulty neurons and general silliness

Hi Dave,
Thanks for following along. You've got great questions. I hope I can answer at least some for you.

I am only used to my centrifugal juicer. I have never tried a masticating juicer. I know mine shreds and spins, I believe yours presses. I'm sure the remaining pulp is of different consistencies depending on the different kinds and varies among brands as well.

I had been using mine to make my Tomato Juice Cocktail. It is from the first pass but I don't find it to be "watery". It makes an excellent tasting product.

The remaining pulp still looked rather juicy so I tried to extract more by running it through again. What I found was a concentrated "ketchuppy goo", free of skins and seeds. Had the skins and seeds been pureed? IDK. There were still plenty remaining in the collection bin for my BSF. Hmm? I don't believe this recipe is "JUST seeds and skin". I do believe that there was enough remaining usable, digestible tomato left to get more out of what I'd been tossing out.


I turned this "ketchuppy goo" into some great tasting ketchup. I find it tastes better than any I have bought. I thought it looked a little thin but it really isn't. It has some real body about it once you load it up on some fries. I just wish I had discovered this method earlier in the season. My family, neighbors and I have all enjoyed it with no stomach issues. If anyone was going to have a stomach issue, that would be me but none to report.

The instruction book that came with my juicer has a section of recipes. There are recipes using the remaining pulp, including using tomato pulp. It's in the Fiber Favorites section.

Today I'm canning salsa. I included seeds and skins in it. I've been eating it this way all my life. Made a little bit extra to use for dinner tonight. Yum!

I did call the Campbell Soup Company. They make the Pace tomato salsa. I am waiting for an email reply from their R&D. I'll let you know what they say when/if I get an answer.

Thanks for your quick reply Karen. You are so great and generous for sharing your knowledge and photos. In re-reading from the beginning I see you explained yourself perfectly well, you make the great-tasting ketchup from the second-pass juice/goo and still feed the final dryish pulp product to your eager BSFs. I think you're right, that probably has very little in the way of seeds and skin in it.

But some people do seem to use the pulp, so I still wonder about the seeds and skin thing. What a great brainstorm to consult Campbell's! Thanks, I'll be interested to hear what they have to say.

I just processed perhaps a couple of kilos / 5 lbs. of tomatoes with my masticating juicer. It produced pretty thick tomato juice and wet pulp at first (first fiber output is always a little wet) followed by moist pulp for the rest of the batch. I was surprised at how little pulp came out, and everything was so crushed up that it was not easy to identify most of the skin and seeds. Then I put the pulp through for a second pass and did not get very much additional juice or goo at all. It was definitely thicker, probably like your ketchup, but I didn't get much. The pulp on the second pass, however, came through very dry and completely unidentifiable. I'm simmering it down for spaghetti sauce now! Mmmm...

Hey Dave,
From my experiments, one pound of tomatoes makes just over one cup of juice. This ketchup experiment, I had made 24 cups of juice (so just under 24 pounds of tomatoes) and ended up with 35 ounces of pulp to turn into ketchup after reprocessing. Therefore, I wouldn't think 5 pounds would have left you very much remaining pulp.


I have read more about masticating juicers today. I think I would have gone in that direction when considering my initial purchase, had I done my homework and not relied on a friend's prior experience. They sound like they preserve more of the nutrients and make a thicker juice. That kind of juicer is a little more expensive too, from what I've read. I'll keep that one on my wish list for now.

Hope your spaghetti sauce turns out great. Sounds delicious!

Hi Dave,
Maybe I can answer a few more of your questions.  If your juicer produces dry "pellets", that stuff is ready for the chickens.  I get soupy goo the first few times through teh champion juicer.  When I am done putting it through again, pretty much all I see is seeds and skin.  To my knowledge there is nothing dangerous about tomato skins or seeds.  My grandmother's generation (born in the 1890s) seemed to peel tomatoes and seed them to include in green salad I think they were the last ones to worry about that. I did ask my grand mother why she peeled them, and she said something about my step-grandfather's dentures.  I really think it was a matter of esthetics.  

Think of the millions of kilos of cherry tomatoes people pop in their mouths.  Tomato seeds come through sewage treatment, still viable, which to me means there must be plenty of people eating tomatoes in tact.

I never saw anyone peeling or seeding the tomatoes for salsa or gazpacho, but for tomato sauce, yes, peel and seed the tomatoes, for the esthetics of it.  And for the fact that why bother canning all the extra stuff.  Tomato sauce is a reduction of the juice with other spices and vegetables added.  Tomato paste is  a further reduction (to paste consistency) of tomato juice only.  You could make canned stewed tomatoes with or without the skin.  It's prettier without the skin, but there is enough texture in stewed tomatoes that the skin and seeds have a place to hide.  With stewed tomatoes, I peel the tomatoes but don't seed them, and I don't worry if a piece of peel gets through into the stewed tomatoes.

Further, when I am cooking with my canned tomatoes or stewed tomatoes, if I see a piece of peel in it as I pour the jar into what ever I'm making, I retrieve it if possible.  

It has never challenged my digestive comfort, nor that of my children, even when they were very young.  (2 years old or older).

The only time I peel tomatoes is when I am canning them whole.  It is just a habit, just how I learned to do it.  I remove the core, down inside the tomato, too.  I cut out any imperfections, cracks where a callus formed.

There was a post somewhere that a person dehydrated the skins they had removed for canning then pulverized them very fine for flavoring.  
The biggest problem with skins and seeds is mouth feel not taste.  That is one advantage of the masticating juicer over the Champion which shreds on initial contact but dose not pulverize. On the other hand with apple, pear and grape seeds they are mostly expelled and do not affect the flavor as much.  Interestingly with larger seeds like melllons and squash the Champion tends to extract the meat from the seeds and pass through the hulls of the seeds.

I have been dehydrating the cherry tomatoes that split after cutting them in half.  The skins are then tough so I intend to whiz them up fine like I did with my slices of peppers last year and use them for flavor in my winter pizza.

I wonder how much flavor is in the skin alone.  It is more cuticle than anything else, something to contain the juicy fruit, keep the water from evaporating....