When you process your tomato juice, then you can be sure it is free of preservatives and unnecessary additives, unlike many commercial brands. Juice can be created from all kinds of tomatoes, but the larger the fruit, the more juice it typically contains. Homemade tomato juice occasionally splits from the jars, so you may choose to add fruit from a plant number with less juice and much more pulp such as Roma, that is generally grown to be used as a paste tomato.
Production Facts
Tomato size isn’t determined by the size of their plants. Many varieties produce a great deal of little fruit on large, sprawling plants; a few create large fruit smaller, more compact plants designed to be grown in containers. Size is determined by variety and breeding, and also like most vegetables and fruits, tomatoes have a high water content. This determines in part how hot the fruit is and exactly what the ratio is between pulp and juice. Larger, standard-sized tomato varieties typically have less pulp and their centres are filled with the moist gelatinous liquid that comprises the seeds. The pulp itself is mainly water, plus it take roughly 13 pounds of tomatoes to create five quarts of juice, as stated by the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.
Large Tomato Varieties
Among the multitude tomato varieties available to gardeners, there are a few old faithfuls recognized as all-purpose kinds that may be used for cutting and canning, or for juice and sauce production. Unlike mass hybrids, heirloom or old-fashioned tomatoes are not appealing, but they compensate for their lack of beauty with flavor and culinary flexibility. Brandywine is just one old standby that produces large, unattractive hot fruit with excellent flavor. Many tomato types today are hybrids, which means two or more kinds are cross-bred to acquire some positive features of each, such as raised resistant to disease and greater yields. Among these are Beefsteak, prized because of its large size that could exceed 1 pound or more per fruit. Another choice is Better Boy, which also produces large, fleshy, juicy fruit. Champion, Celebrity, Royal Flush and Supersteak also create large fruits with a high juice content.
Small to Medium Tomatoes
Many tomato varieties create smaller fruits that are also suitable for making juice. These include Valerie, Whopper, Ace Hybrid, Jet Star, Quick Pick and Early Girl. Bear in mind that while you may need more of these tomatoes to equal a pound, the proportion of weight to quarts created is exactly the same as when using larger tomatoes. During processing, juice can be extracted from the tomato pulp, leaving small waste behind.
Tomato Growth Habits
Rumors develop as long-vining indeterminate plants or as smaller, more compact plants labelled as determinate. Indeterminate plants can create substantial or small fruit depending on the variety. In all cases, the plants create long vines that require support, particularly as they start to set fruit. You can allow the plants to trail on the ground as long as you supply a thick mulch in the kind of hay or straw that provides a barrier between the fruit and dirt. Determinate tomato plants produce smaller plants that generally grow no taller than 3 feet. Unlike their larger vining cousins, determinate plants put their fruit at one time, which can be a benefit when selecting tomatoes for canning or juicing purposes.
Procedure
To process tomatoes for juice, then you will need to cook them and then strain all of the solid materials out to produce a clear semi-viscous fluid. Stem ends are eliminated and complete or cut pieces of fruit are warmed in a large pan so the juice is readily extracted. After strained, the juice is put through a sieve or food mill to remove all seeds and pieces of skin and center, and warmed again before being processed in canning jars or saved in the freezer. Tomato juice is the simple essence of the fruit, and it’s from this that all other sauce-based products are created. The longer the juice comes, the more water evaporates from it, plus it might be further reduced in this manner to the sauce or glue stage.