Giving my new "baby" sized 4 qt. Crock Pot a good workout!

After two batches of chicken stock, I made Crock Pot Tomato Sauce last
night. As usual, the recipe was just a starting point for me.
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/sau...uce-Recipe.htm

I cut all the tomatoes in half and roasted them in the oven for 30
minutes, poured the accumulated liquid into the slow cooker and
continued roasting them for another 15-20 minutes. I took the skins
of all the romas and put them into the Crock Pot. A few of the round
tomatoes didn't want to give up their skins, so they went back into
the oven with diced onion to cook for another 15 minutes. The problem
is that I didn't hit the timer correctly, so it didn't turn on and I
didn't return to the kitchen for at least another 30 minutes. The
tomatoes were fine, but the onion had blackened. Oh well. I was
trying to blacken the tomatoes and they didn't, so everything went
into the Crock Pot. I doubled the amount of garlic cloves and roasted
them along with the tomatoes, used the amount of sugar, salt and
pepper called for in the recipe, didn't add any fresh or dried herbs
and let it cook all night with the top off. It reduced very well!
I'm going to aim for tomato paste instead of sauce though because it's
soooo fresh tasting and I think it will be absolutely delicious on my
pizzas.

My next step is to find my food mill and "can" the tomato paste in
small jars.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

"sf" > wrote in message
...
>
> Giving my new "baby" sized 4 qt. Crock Pot a good workout!
>
> After two batches of chicken stock, I made Crock Pot Tomato Sauce last
> night. As usual, the recipe was just a starting point for me.
> http://frugalliving.about.com/od/sau...uce-Recipe.htm
>
> I cut all the tomatoes in half and roasted them in the oven for 30
> minutes, poured the accumulated liquid into the slow cooker and
> continued roasting them for another 15-20 minutes. I took the skins
> of all the romas and put them into the Crock Pot. A few of the round
> tomatoes didn't want to give up their skins, so they went back into
> the oven with diced onion to cook for another 15 minutes. The problem
> is that I didn't hit the timer correctly, so it didn't turn on and I
> didn't return to the kitchen for at least another 30 minutes. The
> tomatoes were fine, but the onion had blackened. Oh well. I was
> trying to blacken the tomatoes and they didn't, so everything went
> into the Crock Pot. I doubled the amount of garlic cloves and roasted
> them along with the tomatoes, used the amount of sugar, salt and
> pepper called for in the recipe, didn't add any fresh or dried herbs
> and let it cook all night with the top off. It reduced very well!
> I'm going to aim for tomato paste instead of sauce though because it's
> soooo fresh tasting and I think it will be absolutely delicious on my
> pizzas.
>
> My next step is to find my food mill and "can" the tomato paste in
> small jars.

Well done) I have never used it with the top off. What a good idea! I
will give that a try and see how it works for me. Did you have it on
'high'?
--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

"sf" > wrote in message
...
>
> Giving my new "baby" sized 4 qt. Crock Pot a good workout!
>
> After two batches of chicken stock, I made Crock Pot Tomato Sauce last
> night. As usual, the recipe was just a starting point for me.
> http://frugalliving.about.com/od/sau...uce-Recipe.htm
>
> I cut all the tomatoes in half and roasted them in the oven for 30
> minutes, poured the accumulated liquid into the slow cooker and
> continued roasting them for another 15-20 minutes. I took the skins
> of all the romas and put them into the Crock Pot. A few of the round
> tomatoes didn't want to give up their skins, so they went back into
> the oven with diced onion to cook for another 15 minutes. The problem
> is that I didn't hit the timer correctly, so it didn't turn on and I
> didn't return to the kitchen for at least another 30 minutes. The
> tomatoes were fine, but the onion had blackened. Oh well. I was
> trying to blacken the tomatoes and they didn't, so everything went
> into the Crock Pot. I doubled the amount of garlic cloves and roasted
> them along with the tomatoes, used the amount of sugar, salt and
> pepper called for in the recipe, didn't add any fresh or dried herbs
> and let it cook all night with the top off. It reduced very well!
> I'm going to aim for tomato paste instead of sauce though because it's
> soooo fresh tasting and I think it will be absolutely delicious on my
> pizzas.
>
> My next step is to find my food mill and "can" the tomato paste in
> small jars.
>

you forgot to mention a very important part - your kitchen, and perhaps a
bit more of your house, must have smelled heavenly.

sf wrote:
> Giving my new "baby" sized 4 qt. Crock Pot a good workout!
>
> After two batches of chicken stock, I made Crock Pot Tomato Sauce last
> night. As usual, the recipe was just a starting point for me.
> http://frugalliving.about.com/od/sau...uce-Recipe.htm
>
> I cut all the tomatoes in half and roasted them in the oven for 30
> minutes, poured the accumulated liquid into the slow cooker and
> continued roasting them for another 15-20 minutes. I took the skins
> of all the romas and put them into the Crock Pot. A few of the round
> tomatoes didn't want to give up their skins, so they went back into
> the oven with diced onion to cook for another 15 minutes. The problem
> is that I didn't hit the timer correctly, so it didn't turn on and I
> didn't return to the kitchen for at least another 30 minutes. The
> tomatoes were fine, but the onion had blackened. Oh well. I was
> trying to blacken the tomatoes and they didn't, so everything went
> into the Crock Pot. I doubled the amount of garlic cloves and roasted
> them along with the tomatoes, used the amount of sugar, salt and
> pepper called for in the recipe, didn't add any fresh or dried herbs
> and let it cook all night with the top off. It reduced very well!
> I'm going to aim for tomato paste instead of sauce though because it's
> soooo fresh tasting and I think it will be absolutely delicious on my
> pizzas.
>
> My next step is to find my food mill and "can" the tomato paste in
> small jars.

Sounds very good.

I will have to ask my wife for the details on this, but she regularly
makes tomato sauce with just a brief cooking period, and we all think it
tastes very good. She usually uses Pomi brand crushed tomatoes, but we
were out yesterday (she didn't tell me so it wasn't on the list ...) but
we had a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes from our next door neighbor, so
she made sauce from that in 10-15 minutes - and our 11th grader
pronounced it her best homemade pizza to date. (It got some of the
fried sausages I made, so I'll take a some small amount of credit, too.)
White dough and fresh local mozarella from Whole Foods complete the
ingredients list. No added sugar, just plenty of garlic, oregano, salt
and pepper in the sauce as far as I know.

My point? Tomato sauce generally gets better with a longer cooking
time, I think, but it's certainly not bad tasting after only a few
minutes if it's well seasoned, uses good ingredients, etc.

-S-

On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:33:44 +0100, "Ophelia" >
wrote:

> Did you have it on 'high'?

I started it off on high as directed and had it on low all night with
the lid off as per recipe directions (8 hours). I bumped it up to
high for another hour after I got up to reduce it to the consistency I
wanted more quickly.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 10:42:12 -0700, "Pico Rico"
> wrote:

>
> you forgot to mention a very important part - your kitchen, and perhaps a
> bit more of your house, must have smelled heavenly.
>
This is my first Crock Pot and to tell you the honest truth, it
doesn't distribute the same wonderful odor throughout the house the
way cooking things on the stovetop does. I was particularly surprised
by the first chicken stock I made, because that's what I expected and
didn't smell! I had to measure the temperature of my stock to make
sure it was hot enough.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

"sf" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:33:44 +0100, "Ophelia" >
> wrote:
>
>> Did you have it on 'high'?
>
> I started it off on high as directed and had it on low all night with
> the lid off as per recipe directions (8 hours). I bumped it up to
> high for another hour after I got up to reduce it to the consistency I
> wanted more quickly.

That is interesting. All the blurb usually says that if you remove the lid,
you lose an hours cooking time! heh, Experiments called for AND when I
get it out I will test it with the thermo!

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:22:09 +0100, "Ophelia" >
wrote:

>
> "sf" > wrote in message
> ...
> > On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:33:44 +0100, "Ophelia" >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Did you have it on 'high'?
> >
> > I started it off on high as directed and had it on low all night with
> > the lid off as per recipe directions (8 hours). I bumped it up to
> > high for another hour after I got up to reduce it to the consistency I
> > wanted more quickly.
>
> That is interesting. All the blurb usually says that if you remove the lid,
> you lose an hours cooking time! heh, Experiments called for AND when I
> get it out I will test it with the thermo!

Yes, I read that you need to add another 20 minutes of cooking time
every time you take the lid off - but tomatoes are not tough and the
purpose of removing the lid is to reduce the amount of liquid, not
tenderize the tomatoes.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

"sf" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:22:09 +0100, "Ophelia" >
> wrote:
>
>>
>> "sf" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:33:44 +0100, "Ophelia" >
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >> Did you have it on 'high'?
>> >
>> > I started it off on high as directed and had it on low all night with
>> > the lid off as per recipe directions (8 hours). I bumped it up to
>> > high for another hour after I got up to reduce it to the consistency I
>> > wanted more quickly.
>>
>> That is interesting. All the blurb usually says that if you remove the
>> lid,
>> you lose an hours cooking time! heh, Experiments called for AND when
>> I
>> get it out I will test it with the thermo!
>
> Yes, I read that you need to add another 20 minutes of cooking time
> every time you take the lid off - but tomatoes are not tough and the
> purpose of removing the lid is to reduce the amount of liquid, not
> tenderize the tomatoes.

Well if it worked for you ...
--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:29:40 +0100, "Ophelia" >
wrote:

>
> "sf" > wrote in message
> ...
> > On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:22:09 +0100, "Ophelia" >
> > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> "sf" > wrote in message
> >> ...
> >> > On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:33:44 +0100, "Ophelia" >
> >> > wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Did you have it on 'high'?
> >> >
> >> > I started it off on high as directed and had it on low all night with
> >> > the lid off as per recipe directions (8 hours). I bumped it up to
> >> > high for another hour after I got up to reduce it to the consistency I
> >> > wanted more quickly.
> >>
> >> That is interesting. All the blurb usually says that if you remove the
> >> lid,
> >> you lose an hours cooking time! heh, Experiments called for AND when
> >> I
> >> get it out I will test it with the thermo!
> >
> > Yes, I read that you need to add another 20 minutes of cooking time
> > every time you take the lid off - but tomatoes are not tough and the
> > purpose of removing the lid is to reduce the amount of liquid, not
> > tenderize the tomatoes.
>
> Well if it worked for you ...

It most certainly did what it was supposed to do, but the experience
left me thinking that doing it on a stovetop would be faster. The
upside of it was that I got to sleep while the slow cooker did all the
work.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

On 10/18/2013 1:28 AM, sf wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:29:40 +0100, "Ophelia" >
> wrote:
>
>>
>> "sf" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:22:09 +0100, "Ophelia" >
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> "sf" > wrote in message
>>>> ...
>>>>> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:33:44 +0100, "Ophelia" >
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Did you have it on 'high'?
>>>>>
>>>>> I started it off on high as directed and had it on low all night with
>>>>> the lid off as per recipe directions (8 hours). I bumped it up to
>>>>> high for another hour after I got up to reduce it to the consistency I
>>>>> wanted more quickly.
>>>>
>>>> That is interesting. All the blurb usually says that if you remove the
>>>> lid,
>>>> you lose an hours cooking time! heh, Experiments called for AND when
>>>> I
>>>> get it out I will test it with the thermo!
>>>
>>> Yes, I read that you need to add another 20 minutes of cooking time
>>> every time you take the lid off - but tomatoes are not tough and the
>>> purpose of removing the lid is to reduce the amount of liquid, not
>>> tenderize the tomatoes.
>>
>> Well if it worked for you ...
>
> It most certainly did what it was supposed to do, but the experience
> left me thinking that doing it on a stovetop would be faster. The
> upside of it was that I got to sleep while the slow cooker did all the
> work.
>
That's pretty much the point of a slow cooker. You don't have to "be
there" while it does the work. Sounds like it turned out okay.

Jill

On Fri, 18 Oct 2013 01:37:49 -0400, jmcquown >
wrote:

> That's pretty much the point of a slow cooker. You don't have to "be
> there" while it does the work. Sounds like it turned out okay.

)

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

"sf" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:29:40 +0100, "Ophelia" >
> wrote:
>
>>
>> "sf" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:22:09 +0100, "Ophelia" >
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >> "sf" > wrote in message
>> >> ...
>> >> > On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:33:44 +0100, "Ophelia"
>> >> > >
>> >> > wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >> Did you have it on 'high'?
>> >> >
>> >> > I started it off on high as directed and had it on low all night
>> >> > with
>> >> > the lid off as per recipe directions (8 hours). I bumped it up to
>> >> > high for another hour after I got up to reduce it to the consistency
>> >> > I
>> >> > wanted more quickly.
>> >>
>> >> That is interesting. All the blurb usually says that if you remove
>> >> the
>> >> lid,
>> >> you lose an hours cooking time! heh, Experiments called for AND
>> >> when
>> >> I
>> >> get it out I will test it with the thermo!
>> >
>> > Yes, I read that you need to add another 20 minutes of cooking time
>> > every time you take the lid off - but tomatoes are not tough and the
>> > purpose of removing the lid is to reduce the amount of liquid, not
>> > tenderize the tomatoes.
>>
>> Well if it worked for you ...
>
> It most certainly did what it was supposed to do, but the experience
> left me thinking that doing it on a stovetop would be faster. The
> upside of it was that I got to sleep while the slow cooker did all the
> work.

I think that is the point though. You can just leave it. Not a lot of help
if you enjoy being a 'hands on' cook))

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...
> On 10/18/2013 1:28 AM, sf wrote:
>> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:29:40 +0100, "Ophelia" >
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> "sf" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:22:09 +0100, "Ophelia" >
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> "sf" > wrote in message
>>>>> ...
>>>>>> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:33:44 +0100, "Ophelia"
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Did you have it on 'high'?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I started it off on high as directed and had it on low all night with
>>>>>> the lid off as per recipe directions (8 hours). I bumped it up to
>>>>>> high for another hour after I got up to reduce it to the consistency
>>>>>> I
>>>>>> wanted more quickly.
>>>>>
>>>>> That is interesting. All the blurb usually says that if you remove
>>>>> the
>>>>> lid,
>>>>> you lose an hours cooking time! heh, Experiments called for AND
>>>>> when
>>>>> I
>>>>> get it out I will test it with the thermo!
>>>>
>>>> Yes, I read that you need to add another 20 minutes of cooking time
>>>> every time you take the lid off - but tomatoes are not tough and the
>>>> purpose of removing the lid is to reduce the amount of liquid, not
>>>> tenderize the tomatoes.
>>>
>>> Well if it worked for you ...
>>
>> It most certainly did what it was supposed to do, but the experience
>> left me thinking that doing it on a stovetop would be faster. The
>> upside of it was that I got to sleep while the slow cooker did all the
>> work.
>>
> That's pretty much the point of a slow cooker. You don't have to "be
> there" while it does the work. Sounds like it turned out okay.

Might be better if she did it on a day when she was busy with other things

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/