Tomatoes

SandwichShortOfAPicnic

SandwichShortOfAPicnic

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What are your preferred forms?
Do you always used tinned plum tomatoes even if it says chopped? Do you sub tinned tomatoes for real? Do you always make your own tomato sauce? Do you dehydrate and freezer stash?

It will be interesting to hear all your tomato habits.

I just read (and I feel I should have somehow stumbled across this long ago) that if your tomatoes are too tart a pinch of baking soda (being an alkaline) will fix the acidity.
I'm looking forward to trying this out as I've only ever used sugar to counteract the sharpness so if anyone else uses baking soda to fix their tomato sauce let me know.

Personally I can't resist a good looking tomato. I'm saddened my some of the terrible supermarket offerings and will travel far out of my way to get good ones.
Am I on my own in tomato madness?!! 😂
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Am I on my own in tomato madness?!!
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Nope, not at all. Summertime farm fresh tomatoes are nearly a religion in my area. It’s all many of us talk about from, say, May (“Can’t wait ‘til we start gettin’ some good maters comin’ in!) right through August (“Lord, I b’lieve these’re about the best maters I ever growed!”) and into September (“Weren’t those maters we had the last couple o’ months awful good’uns? I sure miss ‘em!”).

I know some folks who are hesitant to put sugar in their sauce will sweeten it with grated carrot.
 
TastyReuben said:
Nope, not at all. Summertime farm fresh tomatoes are nearly a religion in my area. It’s all many of us talk about from, say, May (“Can’t wait ‘til we start gettin’ some good maters comin’ in!) right through August (“Lord, I b’lieve these’re about the best maters I ever growed!”) and into September (“Weren’t those maters we had the last couple o’ months awful good’uns? I sure miss ‘em!”).

I know some folks who are hesitant to put sugar in their sauce will sweeten it with grated carrot.
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I quite like the carrot idea. I wonder if it does enough though?
 
I love tomatoes as well. I've been desperately trying to grow some this year but things haven't gone to plan.
The standard tomato over here is the Roma tomato. It's ok, but sometimes a bit bland.The farmer's market in the city has a great selection of cherry tomatoes, although very expensive. I sometimes buy a few, remove the seeds and then see if they'll grow!
The very best tomatoes are called Margariteños, and they're big, fat, misshapen things - a bit like the tomatoes you find in the Mediterranean.
There's almost always homemade tomato sauce in the fridge, because we're big pasta eaters. Possibly 3 or 4 times a week. A simple tomato sauce usually involves olive oil, garlic and a tin of tomatoes, that's all. Flavour adjustments will be sat or sugar. I have to admit I've never tried baking soda. Sometimes we use fresh tomatoes, because that's what we've got.
As for the carrot, I can assure you it works. There's a comforting pasta dish I make occasionally called pasta e fagioli - pasta with Borlotti beans and a tomato sauce. For that particular sauce, I fry 2 parts onion, 1 part celery and 1 part carrot before adding the tomatoes. It sweetens the sauce beautifully.
 
Fresh vine tomatoes and those multicolored heirloom cherry tomatoes are my favorite to eat, mostly uncooked, in salads, sandwiches and sometimes cooked in a fresh sauce.
Other than fresh, I use canned in whatever form is needed.
 
karadekoolaid said:
Margariteños, and they're big, fat, misshapen things - a bit like the tomatoes you find in the Mediterranean.
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I love the med version of those too, lots of flesh.
If I have to buy supermarket tomatoes I'm partial to baby plum tomatoes, they're always tomatoey tasting and they travel well even at high temps. I like the way they pop in your mouth.
Mostly I buy whatever looks good.

Maybe seeds from your birdpoo tomatoes would give you success, after all they dropped from the sky and grew with no care 😂
 
Here's a photo of the Margariteño tomatoes. Misshapen and really, really tasty when ripe:
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I like a drier tomato, so I stick with Roma, plum, and grape tomatoes for the most part. We grow tomatoes during the summer and during the winter I used tinned tomatoes to make sauce, but will buy Roma/plum/grape tomatoes and let them become fully ripe on my kitchen counter.

Nothing worse than a pale, flavorless, wet tomato. I usually skip the tomato on a sandwich or burger when eating out because they never taste right.
 
karadekoolaid said:
Here's a photo of the Margariteño tomatoes. Misshapen and really, really tasty when ripe:
View attachment 117858
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Tomatoes like that are usually lumped into a catch-all category called heirloom tomatoes. Very popular here, both to grow at home and to buy.
 
karadekoolaid said:
Margariteño tomatoes.
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Seeing them, I believe that sort is called Buffalo Heart locally, and they are indeed utterly delicious.

I got them at the farmer's market a few summers ago, but I rarely go to the farmer's market. Maybe I should revisit.

The supermarkets have introduce a 'local tomato' brand. Mostly cherry, and they are good.

They had the coloured ones, as I posted recently too.

They offer Roma too.

Grappolo is often sold, imported. Depending on how they look...I'd sometimes buy them, if nice and (seemingly at least) ripe.

But the 'local' ones have better taste, closer to the 'dream tomato' taste...not quite, but good enough for the crazy rush we get into.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
How do you make your paste?
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It depends.
Generally I just cook the tomatoes till most liquid has evaporated. Then push through food processor.
Sometimes the paste gets onion and garlic as well.
Generally nothing else so it is multi functional
 
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