One of the things we stock plenty of is tomatoes in various forms – sauce, diced, and paste. One of the things we don’t stock up on is tomato juice, though we have made some tomato-based V-8 knockoff that I called “V-13” for the 13 different veggies we put in it. Unfortunately, its a bit strong on the beets, so tastes rather earthy. The wife & I don’t mind it, we like beets, but no one else seems to care much for it. We’ve set it aside to be used as a soup base, something it works very well for.
I’ve recently started drinking my vegetables in the form of tomato juice cocktails, with and without alcohol. Alcohol, besides the mainstream taboos, is mostly non-Paleo, so I try to limit it. However, unwinding is VERY Paleo, so in picking my battles, I sometimes indulge with a bit of vodka or rum added.
Without tomato juice in storage, there is a gap in our pantry. So, like I always do, I researched the issue of storing tomato juice and found some interesting facts regarding tomatoes stored in various forms, and how the water content affects what it is called.
It seems that paste, sauce, and juice are all various levels of concentration of the same ingredients. The math is very simple.
Preparation:
From Tomato Sauce
Mix together one part tomato sauce and one part water until well blended.
From Tomato Paste
Mix together one part tomato paste and four parts water until well blended.
Therefore, a 12 ounce can of tomato paste equals 60 ounces of tomato juice, when reconstituted. This is a massive space saving tip. Be sure to also store some celery salt and Tabasco though..
As to the tomato juice/alcohol combos, here are a few:
Bloody Hogger
Bacon Vodka replacing vodka.
Bloody Maria
Tequila replacing vodka.
Bloody Molly
Irish whiskey replacing vodka.
Bloody Pirate, Cubanito
Dark rum replacing vodka.
Bloody Scotsman
Scotch replacing vodka.
Virgin Mary, Bloody Shame, Bloody Virgin, or Bloody Barbara
Without alcohol. “Virgin Mary” is commonly used in the USA, and “Bloody Shame” is commonly used in Australia. “Bloody Barbara” refers to Barbara Castle, the British Minister of Transport who introduced tougher drink-driving laws.
Caesar, Bloody Caesar, Bloody Clam, Clam Digger, Red Wings or Clammy Mary
Clamato replacing tomato juice, much more popular in Canada than the traditional Bloody Mary.
Bloody Mary-land, or Crabby Mary
Substitute 2 dashes Old Bay Seasoning for celery salt
That should satisfy your tomato juice cocktail curiosity for a while….
However, my personal favorite is simply a class of tomatoes juice, some ground horseradish (from Bone Creek!), hot sauce, celery salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir with a celery stick, and enjoy, chilled of course. A good friend, Craig, (I’ll call him a friend even though he’s from Ohio) said it was like drinking a shrimp cocktail 🙂
Guess I should look into drying some shrimp to add to it, eh?
Peace,
db