Customer Reviews

Roma Food Strainer and Sauce Maker for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have used this Roma Vegetable Strainer for making apple sauce twice. Previously I have used the Victorio strainer (very nice and sturdy, but no longer available) and Back to Basics (stronger than the Roma in my opinion, but not as good as the Victorio - it had a lot of parts to lose and was not rust resistant). The Roma is easy to put together and seems to be rust resistant, but is weak, flimsy, unstable, and doesn't hold on my counter well with either the suction or the clamp.


Things I like about the Roma Strainer:
* Pieces attach easily without nuts and bolts
* Seem to be rust resistant (The Back-to-Basics strainer that I bought 15 years ago had some parts that would rust)
* Plastic cone that takes the waste (seeds, core and skin) away is farther from the sauce dispenser, making it easier to have various shapes of bowls.


Things I dislike about the Roma Strainer:
* The suction cup does not hold on my smooth quartz counter-top. Nice try, but it doesn't work.
* I have a bull-nose (rounded edge) to my counter-top so the clasp doesn't work very well either - it isn't long enough to reach around the bull-nose. So, it starts wiggling fairly quickly and isn't very stable, with no way to attach it more firmly.
* The handle is much harder to turn than the old Victorio (purchased 30 years ago) or Back-to-basics (purchased 16 years ago) strainers I have previously used. As I turn the handle, the vertical support seems to wobble or bend a bit, as though it isn't very strong.
* The handle seems a bit flimsy.
* Turning the handle is stiffer with more resistance than with the other strainers I have used before. (You tire more quickly.
* I have to run the waste product through 2 x as there is a lot of good applesauce that goes out with it.

The materials and workmanship are poorer quality. Some of the features (fewer parts to get lost) are nicer. Overall, though, my experience is that it is not nearly as good or as easy to use as the other strainers I have used in the past.

I've been using this strainer for my current cherry tomato crop (as usual, I planted way too many), and it has made short work of squishing the pulp out while separating the skins and seeds. I simply wash the tomatoes and dump them in. The only reason I give less than 5 starts is that the suction on the bottom kept releasing periodically, even when I tried sending fewer tomatoes through. I tried dampening the bottom, which helped, but it still eventually lost its grip. Also, the plastic gasket that is supposed to keep tomato guts from squeezing out the top of the screen (top as in end closest to strainer body) doesn't fit well (at least in mine), and won't stay in the machine. This doesn't seem to make much difference, however, as long as you have everything on tight.

Overall, it was a good purchase.

We had a similar unit that was around 20 years old. Every time we used it would leak all over the kitchen floor making it a real pain to clean up afterwards. This New model is leak proof and is a real joy to use. It is very easy to setup and very easy to clean. The juice goes where it should and the compressed leftovers go thru a long tube away from the pount of operation so processing is easy. This product makes canning a job we look forward to doing in the fall. Highly recommended!!!

This is a great affordable alternative to the more pricey original, Squeezo. So easy to use my 2 year old turns the crank. I find myself looking for more things to crush in my new Roma sauce maker/juice maker. So far we have made tomato sauce and juice, apple sauce, mango sauce, and peach sauce. The kids love that they can make and eat there own treat. Plus, no added sugars and no preservatives. I wish I had this to make baby food when my kids were infants.

It is as simple as wash your fruit and veggies and drop them in. I cut them in quarters and drop them in the hopper. later I only cut them in half to test the true ability of the processing power. Not a problem for this machine. The hopper by the way is huge.

Also ordered the 4 piece accessory strainer kit and motor. Awaiting their arrival. The motor is not really needed especially if you have willing children to crank while you load the hopper. I was thinking ahead though envisioning a huge tomato/salsa garden for next year.

Bought the Roma sauce maker and 4 piece accessory kit separately which was $20.00 cheaper than the buy together offers. So do your price research and save.

Just FYI for estimates sake: it only took 4(medium) apples (baseball size) to make an entire quart of apple sauce. 8-10 small-very small roma tomatoes to make a quart of sauce. 1 mango to make a pint of sauce. and five small peaches to make a quart of sauce. I did run the pulp and skin through twice on everything. It is not necessary to so this. I was just playing to see how much I could squeeze out of each item.

The only negative thing I would have to say is watch the suction cup. At first I was awed by its suction abilities but it later lost suction twice. It works better on certain surfaces than others the smoother the better. Good on counter tops not so great on wood. How ever it does also come with the handy dandy C-clamp. So no worries.

Used this for the first time today. Usually takes forever to make sauce between boiling, deseeding, cooking etc. All we did with this was wash the tomatoes (large cherry/small roma size) and drop them in! Awesome, cut a half day project into about 30 min. We also got the accessory pack. Made some salsa, but would recommend de-seeding first. Salsa attachment would be good for kind of a diced tomato sauce for things like chili. I'm going to get one of these for my stepmom for christmas it worked so great!

Ok, so maybe not minced meat, but it makes juice out of tomatoes...

The first batch we did through the strainer was using a recipe from Alton Brown where you seasoned and baked the tomatoes in the oven for a few hours to get rid of some of the juices (we were going to make sauce) and then you mill them. Well, as far as milling goes, it was super easy and it spit the skins and most seeds out the end, while shooting the juice and pulp down the white chute. Don't expect to get a thick sauce or past just from milling the tomatoes, that usually takes time cooking off the excess liquid in a pot (at which time, you could season the sauce if you wanted).

This made quick work of the 20 lbs or so of tomatoes we had to mill and with little mess. The only mess I really had was the juice was running out the right side of the mill by the handle, and I couldn't understand why... This just didn't make sense to me... Everything I read said this was basically a mess free mill. Well, after milling was done, and I was taking it apart to clean it, I noticed the rubber O ring around where the handle inserts into the mill was broken. So, this prevented the handle from being water (or Juice) proof, allowing some of the tomato juices to back-flow through the handle.

I found the suction cup to be sufficient while milling our first batch. The next couple of batches we did, we didn't even blanch the tomatoes, just to see how things worked. Turns out, things worked just as well, and we didn't have to spend an extra 30 minutes - 1 hour prepping the tomatoes. We just cut off bad spots (and pulled off the stems) and broke the skin of the tomatoes (even cutting the bigger ones in halves/quarters) and pushed them through. There were a few times when I thought we would loose suction, but it didn't... it held up well.

The only complaint I have (aside from the broken O ring =\) is that I wish it had some type of scraper on the outside of the mesh cone to scrape the pulp off as it goes. But since, the way it works is the red plastic cork screw type thing pushes the tomatoes through the mill, with the space between the cork screw and the screen getting smaller and smaller as it goes until the skins are pushed out the end... It would be difficult to have something on the outside to spin along scraping at the same time...

I think the optional motor would be heavenly, allowing you to cut and load while it presses and would save loads of time...

I did run the "discarded" skins and such a few times, just to make sure I got EVERYTHING, but it still was a huge time saver.

I'm very pleased with my Roma food mill. Peeling and seeding tomatoes for sauce, especially with the really small Romas I tend to get from my garden, just took forever! Now I rinse them, cut them in half, throw them in the hopper and minutes later I'm done! I do run the discards through a second time, doesn't take long and you get a lot more pulp than you'd think on the second go-round.

I like that the hopper is so large, it's very easy to use, the one drawback is that it's a bit hard to store. I've been putting everything back in the original box and sometimes it's a puzzle to fit it all in.

Suction cup didn't work for me either. Clamp worked well though.

There's a gap between the back of the machine and where the rotating part fits in which lets food just sit there without being pulled through the mill. Not sure if there's a design reason for that or if it's just my machine, but it's a bit of a hassle to reach into that narrow space to fish out the bits and get them moving along.

The screen cleans up quickly with a bottle brush.

It's not something I'd pull out for a handful of tomatoes, or a handful of anything really, but for processing big batches it's wonderful.

Upon using it the very first time, the plastic lever that works the suction cup broke. This made it quite challenging to turn the crank and hold it still at the same time.

I was a little leary before buying because of the mixed reviews, however, when you look at other food mills they have a lot more negative comments.

I processed applesauce when I first received it. Make sure the apples are cooked all the way through. Hard apples will not process.

I bought the additional attachments, primarily for salsa. It processes tomatoes well, just run them through twice to get the best yield. Three times and the skins start getting pushed through the screen.

The suction cup device did not work for me. I use the clamp but this limits where you can use it.

It is easy to setup and cleaning is not difficult. A bottle brush helps to clean the screens.

Overall, the device was worth the purchase and I am happy with it.

I've made applesauce with this twice and it has worked marvelously. The handle turns very easily and the sauce is free of seeds, skin, stems, etc. The suction cup could be improved as it loses its suction from time to time. I have a concern about the longevity of the plastic debris nozzle--I think the way it snaps on to the strainer is a bit suspect. Overall its a nice product that does its job quite well.