Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Canned Tomatoes


Stone

Recommended Posts

(Apologies if this has been done before, but I couldn't find a thread.)

Is there a substantive difference between canned crushed tomatoes and whole? Crushed seems much easier to turn into sauce, but someone told me long ago that crushed tomatoes are the ones that fall on the floor of the processing plant. I don't really think that's true, but most people seem to make their sauce from canned whole tomatoes.

Also, what brand do you like? I look for the famed Muir Glen, and can only find their stewed tomatoes or their sauce.

I recently made a batch of sauce from Progresso tomatoes. My friends all liked it, but I thought it had a metallic taste.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like Liza, I tend toward the Pomi-in-a-box for boughten tomatoes, which get a lotta disrespect in magazine taste tests, for some reason, but taste good and perform well for me. Plus, and this is a big plus, no citric acid, which, especially in combination with the taste of a can, obliterates so much tomato fruitiness.

But not at this time of year, neither!

Priscilla

Writer, cook, & c. ●  Twitter

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like San Marzano tomatoes also, but they're getting harder and harder to find on supermarket shelves. Cento used to be available most of the time, but now I stop by the Italian market and pick up whichever brand they have. Also, sometimes the job lot stores get a load of San Marzano tomatoes so I'll stock up.

re:Pomi, this is the brand that our Italian friends recommended to me as the "closest to Italian tomatoes". Their family lives in the Abruzzi region. FWIW, they also recommend the Del Verde brand of dried pasta as being closest to "the real thing".

I prefer whole tomatoes because they're the most versatile to have on hand -- you can always dice or crush them, but if you have only crushed tomatoes you can't get them into bigger chunks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I usually buy diced. You can crush them with the food mill or leave them chunky, and they certainly don't taste any different than the whole ones. Whole tomatoes are, of course, invaluable for oven-drying.

Matthew Amster-Burton, aka "mamster"

Author, Hungry Monkey, coming in May

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What's the trick to extracting proper flavor from the Pomi tomatoes? I tried them once and they tasted like shit, but a number of reliable sources have indicated that they're the best product out there. Must they be treated in a particular way?

I don't know what brand I buy, but I get them up at Teitel Bros. on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. They sell the big cans (number 10, is it?) of phony San Marzanos (grown in the USA from the same seeds) and they're quite good.

I prefer the whole ones because they give you more options, especially if you want to ratchet up to a higher level of sauce by removing the tomatoes, squeezing out the seeds, and discarding all the excess liquid. To create a puree it's a simple matter to use the stick blender.

For basic marinara sauce I don't use fresh tomatoes, even at this time of year. The canned are much more reliable and predictable. I use the fresh tomatoes only for quick-cooked fresh sauces, which are a different species.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you know that historically speaking, a marinara sauce has no relation whatsoever to tomatoes but to seafood? Originally, marinara sauces contained fish and shellfish, but over the years, the sauce has devolved into its present form -- aka sugo di pomodoro.

Anyway, not sure about where you got your last batch of Pomi tomatoes, FG. I usually toss them into a pan that has sauteed garlic and EVOO. Sometimes I'll place them in a colander lined with a cheesecloth if using crushed tomatoes or whole tomatoes, to get all that extraneous liquid out of the way, then toss them onto the pan -- then cook everything down until the tomatoes have thickened to a jam-like consistency. At that point, flavor has concentrated and far surpasses any commercial product out there. Sometimes I use this in lieu of tomato paste.

I suppose you could add a few grains of salt halfway through the process.

SA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That depends on if you have a lot of time on your hands. :laugh:

Seriously, if using fresh tomatoes, absolutely. You'll taste the difference, plus no seeds getting stuck between your teeth.

I sort of do half and half if using canned or packaged tomatoes. Depends on if I feel like doing the extra step.

SA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find sauce made with all the seeds and all the liquid to be entirely edible, but like I said above you'll get a higher class of sauce if you discard the liquid and the seeds. For me, it's a question of whether I'm just cooking some sauce to have around for my own use on pasta and such (in which case I just dip my stick blender into the whole mess and make it into a puree) or whether I'm trying to make nice "company" sauce or sauce that has to perform really well and be as low-moisture and sweet as possible, such as on homemade pizza.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Definitely works for sauce-making, though you will notice an improvement -- and lower yield -- if you ditch the juice too. It's just a question of how far you want to go.

The food mill is an underrated tool. Probably worthy of its very own thread.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The juice is water plus solids. The water presents the problem of needing to be gotten rid of. To do that you have to cook the heck out of it through reduction. Even if you did this separately from the whole tomatoes, and even were the solids desirable, you'd create an overcooked product. Then there's the question of what you're left with even if you can magically remove the water and leave behind just the solids, and the news isn't great there either. It's mostly as you said: salt and extracted bitterness. Plus some worthwhile tomato essence, but it's not really separable. You won't make a bad sauce by leaving in the water and the seeds; but you'll make a better sauce (better being defined as sweeter, more concentrated, and "fresher" tasting) if you remove them. It's just a question of your priorities on any given day.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use the guts and skins to drip through cheesecloth to make tomato water. Since I usually have the guts from 20-40 tomatoes, it's worthwhile. I'll throw in a few chopped up "whole" ones too.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A couple of summers ago, I did an experiment with tomato sauce. I bought a case of plum tomatoes a farmers market and my mom and I made three batches of sauce, all simmered for a couple hours with a little garlic and basil, no salt or oil. They were subsequently bagged and frozen for future use. Here are the results.

Batch 1 - Not skinned or seeded, just cut in quarters, stem end removed. This produced a very rustic, rather thin sauce. It was good for using in rustic recipes like chicken cacciatore.

Batch 2 - Same as batch one, except put through a food mill after cooking. This was a thin, smooth sauce. Good as a base for future recipes, but was such a messy PITA.

Batch 3 - Skinned by blanching and cut to remove seed pods. This produced the thickest sauce and was just a little chunky, an excellent sauce as it was. The "guts" were strained and made a delicious fresh tomato juice that Jason enjoyed.

I had about half a years worth of sauce after this, but I really think it most convenient to have some good quality canned tomatoes on hand, all year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I'm making a smooth sauce, I'll use crushed San Marzanos, drained, because it's easier. All the junk is left behind in the mill. If I'm making a sauce in which the tomatoes need to appear in pieces, I'll laboriously pinch off the stem end (hate that part), de-seed and de-gut them. The pure pulp of good quality whole canned tomatoes makes a very nice sauce.

Who said "There are no three star restaurants, only three star meals"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know what brand I buy, but I get them up at Teitel Bros. on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. They sell the big cans (number 10, is it?) of phony San Marzanos (grown in the USA from the same seeds) and they're quite good.

I adore these domestically grown San Marzanos! They are, in my opinion, the most delicious canned/boxed product. The tomatoes are always whole and firm, not falling apart like most brands, and the have a great, tangy flavor.

When I am feeling lazy, I cut up a few straight out of the can, and toss with a bit of crushed garlic, some olive oil, a few fresh herbs, black pepper, and good parmesan, and eat with some angel hair pasta. WOW! A taste of summer even when it is cold out.

I have seen them at Williams Sonoma, and usually but them at Bristol Farms in LA. They cost upwards of $4, but worth it.

Here is a link that shows the can--the graphic label is impossible to miss.

http://www.cybercucina.com/ccdocs/products/SM5012.html

(Don't know a thing about the site...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like to use Pomi. But my mom who is 87 yrs. old and has been making gravy all her

life (and it's the best ever), swears by Contatina Tomato Puree.

Life is too important to be taken seriously.[br]Oscar Wilde

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For tinned San Marzanos I use Orgoglio.

For general tinned romas I use Nicastro's. Nicastro's is an Italian deli here in Ottawa that's been around since the 1960s and imports their own tomatoes, EVOO, and espresso, mainly from around Naples I think. Very good general quality stuff and quite inexpensive. They make dynamite liver sausages also.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I stand corrected. That photo didn't look familiar so I looked online. It turns out Teitel Bros. has some sort of Web presence.

The stuff I get is actually from Italy. The tomatoes are the shape of San Marzano tomatoes, but probably aren't -- they'd say it if they were, right? I don't know what kind of DOCG-type regulations they have on these things. In any event, the 6lb 9oz can is amazingly just $2.99. It's an incredible deal. They look like this:

Francesconi_Tomatoes.jpg

Here's the Teitel site, by the way:

http://205.136.241.30/

The olive oil from Lucca at $11.99 a gallon is also outrageously good for the price, or even for triple the price. The 3-year Reggiano is also very nice.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...