OT: freezin' 'mators

The generally recommendations for tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables is to blanch them before freezing. The skins slip off easily after blanching. As for the flavor, that is kind of subjective but I like frozen better than canned.

CarlBoyd

Read this to my wife and she sure laughed about the metalworking involved here.

She says she has frozen excess tomatoes (not this year, too much corn) after blanching and removing skin. She chops up the tomatoes so they take up less room and packs them in plastic freezer cartons. Has not tasted them later, just thaws and dumps into the soup she is making. It's always good soup.

Paul in Central Oregon

Yep, that's what I've heard too. But if you're going to blanch and peel, toss them in a jar and can. Doesn't take any more time. She heard from a couple ladies now that you can just toss 'em in the freezer. I'm a bit skeptical, wish we had tried this with a few pounds a year ago.

Karl

We freeze them. Just wash, cut the top/core out (like a counter-sink would look on top) and maybe dry off. Put in a zip lock bag and freeze. When you take them out of the freezer run them under warm/hot water and the skin will slip right off. Works fine for cooking recipes, no good for eating like fresh, but you already knew that :)

Need pictures? Mom's been freezing some lately as we've been get behind eating them fresh. Some sort of blight has pretty much wiped out all the leaves now, won't have fresh ones too much longer...

Hey, thanks Leon. I was afraid to do this without a testimonial. This will save Julie tons o' time. We plant about 50 roma that ripen all at once - this week. Only problem - if I shoot two deer there may not be room in the freezer.

Karl

Politics and guns, your posting meets the standards of r.c.m. ;)

Wes

AND, he's killing something. That gets two bonus points. Four if the deer are liberals.

-- Ed Huntress

And a triple point multiplier if PETA put the deer in an orange vest to protect it ;)

Wes

Maybe they eat Acorns, too. Five more bonus points.

-- Ed Huntress

Throw 'em into a freezer bag whole . Run scalding hot water over them when you pull them out , the skin will slip right off . We did 'em that way when we had a garden , tasted great in spaghetti , soup , whatever . Thawing them out to slice for sammiches probably ain't gonna work so well .

What's that Lassie? You say that Karl Townsend fell down the old rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue by Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:22:10 -0500:

I understand that if tomatoes are cooled below 50F, some flavors are 'turned off'. Shouldn't be any worse than supermarket tomatoes.

What about the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Tomatoes Gerry :-)} London, Canada

You need a freezer? Hell I thought you Minnesotans just set stuff outside. Maybe you need the freezer to keep them from getting too cold ;-)

There are probably some subtle differences between freezing and canning, but I can't discern enough to quibble over it.

I CHEAT like crazy now when freezing stuff. The FASTER you can freeze it the smaller the ice crystals and the better the product is when thawed out (doesn't matter much which product, fruits,veggies and meat all come out better with the faster freezing) So how do you get the faster freezing. Wash them good. Slice and layer them on wax paper. Now for the freezing part. Grab your cooler, a couple aluminum trays or racks. and visit the local carbonic store. You want DRY ICE. Stick the DI in the cooler and set the trays on top, set your maters on the trays and leave the cooler lid slightly cracked. In about 20 minutes your maters will be frozen solid. Now you can remove them slip them into freezer bags and put them in the freezer. Just eliminate all the air from the bags (tip: take a small chunk of DI and put it in the bag, as it changes into gas the air will be forced out, less freezer burn and longer product life as a result.

I thought all day, I can't top that.

Wes

Your mind is not sufficiently twisted, then. Watch more Fox News. d8-)

-- Ed Huntress

I like it! Some might think it a _little_ compulsive, but they can keep their opinions to themselves.

I would only do it if I had a LOT to freeze - a whole deer, a bushel of tomatoes, etc.

To be even more compulsive, you could vacuum seal before going in the freezer.

Bob