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Circa 2007, you CAN trust a tomato in January


Fat Guy

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In 1993, when Vince Staten published "Can You Trust a Tomato in January," the answer was no. Back in the day, supermarket tomatoes out of season (and even in season) were awful, flavorless red-colored balls of cellulose. You had to leave these rocks on your windowsill for about a week to make them soft enough to be chewable, but they still tasted like nothing. If you used them routinely, Lee Bailey had contempt for you.

Today, it's possible to walk into most good supermarkets and pick up a little plastic box of so-called grape tomatoes. And they're damn good. No, they're not as good as a freshly picked tomato from my father-in-law's garden in Connecticut in August. No, they're not as good as the tomatoes at the Union Square Greenmarket in late summer. But they're good. They're sweet, they taste like tomatoes -- they're a remarkable innovation. I can't place exactly when they came on the scene, but one year they weren't around and a couple of years later they were ubiquitous.

And those aren't the only good tomatoes available in January in my supermarket. I just bought a somewhat larger plastic box of multi-colored tomatoes that look and almost taste like the heirloom tomatoes at the greenmarket: orange, yellow, striped, various sizes -- really good. I served them on a platter and my guests were amazed. Grown in Mexico, of course. The brand seems to be "Sunset" and the product is called "Tomato Medley."

Of course, there are still a lot of terrible tomatoes in the supermarket too. Like, those tomatoes on the vine just aren't good, and the Campari tomatoes are weak, and the beefsteak and plum tomatoes are pretty much guaranteed awful unless it's summer and the supermarket has a local supplier. It's amazing anybody buys them, when the good grape tomatoes are right there and usually don't even cost very much.

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)

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I completely agree. I think the grape tomatoes have been around for a couple of years now - they are almost always edible.

Have you seen/tried the new (to me) strawberry tomatoes? The ones I've had have all been great. About double the size of the grape, they've been very flavourful.

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I've seen the strawberry tomatoes but not purchased them. I know Produce Pete recommends them. I think they're grown in Canada. I'll give them a try.

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)

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Grape tomatoes do seem, for some reason, to be quite reliable as to flavor, etc. throughout the year I don't think they're even remotely in the same neighboorhood as the Purple Cherokee and Brandywine tomatoes I get in the Union Square Greenmarket in August, but they do actually taste like tomato. I wonder what the deal is with this particular tomato? Where are they grown? And I wonder if the flavor 's related to the size somehow? Because the one thing that's incredibly annoying about grape tomatoes is trying to use them in a sandwich.

--

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If you're willing to waste a little bit of each grape tomato and invest some labor you can make them perform pretty well on sandwiches. You have to square them off a little by creating two facing edges, and then you can slice them lengthwise to get two (or three if they're on the large size) pieces that lie flat. It takes a few pieces to cover a sandwich, but they work and they stay put if they're anchored by mayo, mustard, etc.

I think in terms of why they taste good the primary reason is the brix level -- they're just very sweet. But they also do seem to have good tomato flavor, sweetness aside. I do think small tomatoes are naturally sweeter than large ones -- this has been the case since long before grape tomatoes came on the scene, for example cherry tomatoes were always the best of the bad tomatoes in winter, and when growing tomatoes in the garden (at least around here) the little ones always seem to come up sweetest.

Right now the ones I have in my kitchen are grown in Mexico, but I think I've seen them from California (and maybe Florida?) at other times of year.

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)

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The size of the tomato in some cases *does* have a lot to do with how we finally experience its flavor, but part of it has to do (in some cases) with federal regulations on interstate shipping.

The smaller tomatoes are not as tightly regulated. I remember an article somewhere about this, but could not find it online. I did find this however, online in the Federal Register which gives a bit of a start to finding the concept behind *whatever it is* that I read about. :blink: If that makes sense.

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I get panini at Tarallucci e Vino in the East Village from time to time, and they have the good grape tomatoes you're talking about. I've wondered whether people are growing them in hothouses.

Edited by Pan (log)

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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In 1993 while driving down PCH I had a conversation with my agronomist then-brother-in-law who stated, definitively, that I would never eat a good grocery store tomato in my lifetime. He was as certain as certain can be.

So what happened? Was there some agricultural equivalent of the Manhattan Project going on in the last decade involving the love apple?

Chris Amirault

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Sir Luscious got gator belts and patty melts

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ahem, insert plug of your choice for upcoming "how to pick a peach" this is a highly abridged account from the book:

grape tomatoes are a pretty fascinating fruit. they were introduced from Asia in the late-90s. they took off like crazy. between 1999 and 2003, sales increased by more than 300%.

Originally there was just one dominant variety, the Santa Claus (red, of course). now there are dozens in all kinds of colors.

Why are they so good? really, 2 factors: 1) they have extremely thick skins. this allows them to be picked later and still survive shipping. 2) they are picked at much higher brix than other tomatoes. most tomatoes go 4 to 5%, grapes go 8 to 9%.

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A couple of points:

I agree that grape tomatoes are on the short list of new things to be thankful for (such as polartec; I used to include farm-raised salmon, before the environmental reports and the PCBs). But it seems to me that they are not as good as they were when they first arrived in supermarkets. This often seems to be the pattern with new varieties of produce, and I wonder why. (Russ?) I remember being bowled over by red flame grapes, for example, and clementines, and even granny smith apples when they appeared, but now they are often very disappointing. Is this because less care is taken with the cultivation as the market widens, or something changes about the breeding stock, or is it related to a second point:

Storage and handling makes a huge difference. I have had grape tomatoes recently that managed to be lousy, and I think it might be because they were refrigerated in shipping or in the store--or maybe they just got chilled by ambient temperatures. In any case, they managed to be as flavorless as those old-fashioned cardboard supermarket tomatoes (the ones that came in a single row of three or four in a long green plastic basket).

Still, grape tomatoes are the only fresh tomatoes I'll buy in the supermarket.

(And congratulations, Steve, on the new organization of egullet: I wouldn't have noticed this thread in the old one.)

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refrigerating tomatoes deserves a death sentence (says parsons, the produce ayatollah). it will kill any tomato, no matter how good. i do also think that there is an expectation factor at work, too. at first, we're pleasantly surprised by something with good flavor, then the next time we buy it, we want it to have great flavor. we kind of take good for granted. then, of course, there are the usual caveats: different farmers do make a difference, as do different years. remember, all this stuff is grown, not manufactured (appearances to the contrary).

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Catherine, you're right. The grape tomatoes aren't always good. I was at the grocery store this morning - the grape tomatoes looked terrible. I bought some strawberry tomatoes instead - there are from Mexico (I think the sign said Dole - but I'm not sure).

Their size also makes them just a little bit better for sandwich making.

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But it seems to me that they are not as good as they were when they first arrived in supermarkets.

I think the situation is that they're not as uniformly good as when they first arrived. Certainly, when you get good ones, they're still as good as they used to be. I think the reason is simply that most new products that have some success will be imitated. The imitations are often not as good, so overall the product becomes less reliable. For this reason, I've started focusing on brands as I never did before. A box that says grape tomatoes is no longer a guarantee of a certain minimum standard. But recently I've found that the Splendido name on a box is a good assurance. They cost about 50 cents more per box than the other two brands available where I shop, and I'm happy to pay it.

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)

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(Does anybody know how to reach Vince Staten? I'd love to get his opinion on grape tomatoes!)

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)

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