Homemade Tomato Juice – How to Do It Right

The biggest problem I have run into in making and bottling my own tomato juice is how to get the juice to not separate in the bottles. If you have ever bottled tomato juice or other puree juices, you will know what I am talking about. The thick part of the juice seems to separate from the watery part. So, how do you keep it from doing that? It can seem to be a little tricky, but it is possible. First, let’s talk a little bit about tomatoes.

Tomato plants used to be more acid. Over the years, seed growers have cross bred the tomatoes to create sweeter varieties. This has caused us to need to change the way we preserve the tomatoes so they will be safe to eat. There are different ways of preserving food that is on different parts of the acid-base scale. The more acid foods can be boiling water bath processed safely and the food will keep well in the bottles and be safe. The more alkaline foods need to be preserved in a pressure cooker if you are bottling them. Tomatoes have moved from more acid toward neutral and because of this they must be acidified when they are bottled.

It takes a lot of time and money to conduct the tests to set the processing times and methods for each food. For this reason, the Agriculture Extension Service has recommended that we acidify the tomatoes back to near what they used to be and also cook them for longer periods of time or at higher heat so they will be safe to eat right from the bottles. Many people do not heat tomatoes up right out of the bottle, and because of this they must be processed long enough to kill potential botulism spores that may be in them. Botulism toxin is odorless, tasteless, and can be deadly if ingested. If we simmer bottled food for 20 minutes after opening the bottles the toxins will be destroyed and the food will be safe to eat.

Making tomato juice will be easier if you use a food strainer sauce maker to puree the tomatoes. There are several on the market that are good and there are extra screens and spirals you can purchase to puree berries, pumpkin, and make salsa. You will also need a heavy stock pot or pan to cook your tomatoes before you puree them. Along with the sauce maker and stock pot, you will need a container to catch the tomato juice as it comes out of the sauce maker, long handled instruments for stirring, a few scrapers, and a cup or small pan to transfer the cooked tomatoes to the food strainer. To cut down on the kitchen and house mess, I like to do my juicing on my patio where I can hose it down when I am done. That way I don’t have to be so careful, but I have done it all in my kitchen in the past.

The first thing you will want to do with your ripe tomatoes is wash them. You don’t need to core them or cut them if they are small, but check them over and make sure they have no bad spots on them. The juice will only be as good as the produce you use to make it from. They key to making juice that will not separate is to get the tomatoes from the whole, raw state to the cooked state as quickly as possible. When you cut through the cells of the tomato it crushes the cell walls and starts the separation process of the juice from the pulp. The less you can cut it and the faster you heat it the better the juice will be. I begin to cook a few tomatoes in the pan while I am cutting the larger ones and I just keep adding and stirring them as I cut. You don’t want to crush by stirring too much, but you also don’t want the tomatoes to stick on the pan and burn. Cook the tomatoes until they are soft clear through. You don’t need to take the skins or cores out because they will be separated when you put them through the food strainer. Now it is time to put them through the food strainer sauce maker. When this is complete, bring your juice back to a boil, ladle it into the clean, hot bottles, add your acid and salt or other flavorings, clean the lip of the bottle and put the hot canning lid and ring on and twist on tight. You are now ready to process your tomato juice. Check with your local Agriculture extension agent for recommended amounts of acid, times and methods of processing at your altitude.. To acidify you can use citric acid or lemon juice.

Homemade tomato juice is one of my favorites. If you garden, you will want to know how to preserve those extra tomatoes for use during the cold or hot season when you can’t grow the fresh ones. Tomatoes are one of the few foods that have healthy nutrients in them that are better for you when cooked. Enjoy your glass of tomato juice or tomato soup knowing you are getting good nutrition.

Vegetables for Juicing-part 3 Vegetables C to G

Most vegetables will make good juices, but some are better than others. We can divide vegetable juices into three types. These are (1) Juices from vegetable fruits, (2) Juices from green leafy vegetables, and (3) Juices from root. Here is a general rule for combining different vegetable juices. You can combine vegetables from category 1 and 2 or from 2 and 3, but not 1 and 3. Here are more of the common vegetables and something about the good they do in the body:

CHIVES are fairly high in protein and carbohydrate, rich in potassium, calcium, phosphorus and sulfur. They stimulate the digestion, and are valuable as a blood cleanser but they are a strong diuretic, so they should be used in moderation, especially by those who have trouble with their kidneys.

CUCUMBERS are recognized as a valuable health food. They are tasty and refreshing when crisp. Cucumbers are very high in potassium, iron and magnesium. They also contain a relatively high percentage of silicon and fluorine. They are good for the gall bladder, liver, kidneys, hair, teeth and nails. Cucumbers should be peeled or scored with a fork as the skin is not easy to chew or digest.

DANDELION greens are a good source of potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium. Dandelions nourish the bone structure and help the health of the teeth. It is good for the lymph and helps release toxins through the skin pores. Dandelion is a cold loving plant that will have a mild flavor if harvested in the cold months. It will become bitter if grown through the hot months. It is helpful and nutritional in many organs of the body so combine with carrot juice for a milder flavor juice in hot months. Blossoms are high in Vitamin D and roots are good for the kidneys.

ENDIVE is another cold loving plant that helps the body in ways similar to the dandelion. This vegetable aids the liver and spleen. Rich in potassium, sodium, calcium and phosphorus, the juice of endive, particularly when added to the juices of carrots, celery and parsley, is very nourishing to the optic system.

FENNEL is a very alkalizing food, aiding in loosening up mucous or phlegm conditions. It helps to stimulate the digestive processes. It is a good diuretic. It has high sodium content and is rich in potassium and iron. The editable part is the bulbous part of the plant.

GARLIC is beneficial to the lymph, aiding in eliminating noxious waste matter from the body. It will probably increase body-odor until the toxic waste has been sufficiently eliminated. It is a good cleanser of the mucus membrane which would include the lungs, sinuses, nose and throat. This makes it great for heart conditions and asthma. It stimulates the kidneys and helps with high blood pressure. It also helps stimulate the peristaltic action in digestion. Use with parsley or mint juice to help with the odor problem.

Why Juice Fresh Fruits and Vegetables?

Did you know that 95% of the nutrient content of fruit and vegetables is found in the juice? A well balanced and healthy diet includes many servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Sometimes it is hard to just eat that much food. Fresh fruits and Vegetables made into juices are an easy source for getting those vital nutrients. When fruits and vegetables are juiced, the cell walls of the produce are broken down to let the juice out. This juice is rapidly absorbed into the blood stream. That is the quickest way to get nutrients into the body through the digestive system.

Phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables have been found to cure ailments such as asthma, diseases of the heart, digestive system, and diabetes. Consumed regularly they prevent and help fight many types of cancer. The best way to access these phytochemicals is through juicing the fresh fruits and vegetables and consuming that juice fresh and raw.

Chlorophyll, which is found in the green vegetables, particularly the leafy ones, has very similar makeup to the hemoglobin in the blood. Basically, it is the blood of the plants. It is healthy to use the green leafy vegetables in juices because of this oxygen transporter that is in them.

Raw fruits and vegetables contain many enzymes that play an important part not only in the digestion of our food but also in the building and repairing of our bodies. Our bodies produce enzymes, but we need so many that as we age, they become less available for the many jobs they are needed for in our bodies. If we supplement them we live healthier. Many of these enzymes are made up of trace minerals and other elements that we can get from juiced raw produce.

You have complete control over the ingredients when you make your own juices. You select the ingredients and other flavorings to be added. You have the final choice when you do it yourself. Because health and tastes are individual things, no two people will choose the same. What works for one may not work for someone else. That is one very good reason for having your own juicer and using it in your home. As you educate yourself about your health issues you are better able to choose what will be right for you.

The benefit we get from our food is so much greater in most cases, if we eat it raw. Juicing raw fruits and vegetables gives us more of the necessary nutrients to keep our bodies functioning at top efficiency than chewing our food. Dietary experts tell us that the juice of fruits and vegetables is absorbed more efficiently. We have the choice of what foods to use, if and how to add flavors, organic or inorganic, how fresh we want the food, and what we ultimately juice when we choose to juice our own food. Choose healthy, choose juicing for health and to enjoy the flavors of good food.

Breakfast Juice Recipe

We got a variety of fruits from Bountiful Baskets the past two weeks. I have Bananas, apples, kiwi, strawberries, kumquats, mangoes, and pineapple left from before. I have been on a juice fast so I haven't been using much of it. I have juiced a few grapefruit with our citrus juicer and that juice is one of my favorite, but I wanted something different today. I didn't know if the bananas would juice so I didn't even try. The other things I decided to use for my juice.

Here is what I used:
2 Kiwi
4 strawberries
1 mango
6-7 Kumquats
1 medium apple
a wedge from top to bottom of pineapple 1 inch wide at the rind
the core of the pineapple.

I juiced all of this through my masticating juicer. I thought it would be too tart, but it was not. It was so good, about as tart as a glass of good orange juice, or a little sweeter.

Try this recipe tomorrow and enjoy your breakfast drink. We have more juice recipes that are great for juice fasting on our juicers web site.

One thing I learned about putting just fruits through that juicer is that you get a lot of pulp without fiber to push it on through. I had to follow it up with some celery to get it to go through. That was perfect though, because celery mixed with the fruits and some spinach leaves, makes a good lunch juice.