Can metallic marinara sauce be saved?

July 30, 2012 5:20 PM

Made some marinara sauce in the slow cooker that came out tasting really metallic. Any way to save it?

My slow cooker pasta sauce looks lovely and dark and thick, but it tastes like a tin can. It wasn't inedible, but I'm wondering if anyone's got any good ideas for doctoring up the leftovers.

Ingredients: crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, bay leaf, oregano, basil, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar.

posted by JanetLand to food & drink (11 answers total)

Hard to say, but it sounds like too much garlic, or undercooked. I'd add something hot -- chile flakes -- and a little more sweet. Good luck.
posted by LonnieK at 5:27 PM on July 30, 2012

If it's not too sweet already, more brown sugar, white sugar, or honey.
posted by peep at 5:28 PM on July 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Something must have gone wrong. I'd throw it out. Those ingredients in a slow cooker should not ever create a metallic taste.

(You haven't been eating pine nuts in the last few days, have you?)
posted by Ery at 5:30 PM on July 30, 2012

you can totally get a metallic taste from over reduced over cooked tomatoes. You've basically got a bunch of fancy tomato paste. Use as such.

(and a marinara sauce shouldn't take more than a bit of simmering, and a ragu should only see toms near the end of cooking. You def should not be slow cooking a sauce like this)
posted by JPD at 5:45 PM on July 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

Is your slow cooker aluminum? Because that can cause the metallic taste.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:50 PM on July 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

Some balsamic vinegar thrown and cooked for a few mins might help it adds a tartness and sweetness that might hide the metal taste.
posted by wwax at 6:11 PM on July 30, 2012

One time when I had made a tomato-based curry that tasted metallic for some unknown reason, I added a pinch of brown sugar and a splash of Bragg's Amino Acids (for the umami) and it was totally fine. So some combination of sweet and umami might do the trick.
posted by lunasol at 6:39 PM on July 30, 2012

I've successfully remediated a too-sharp tomatoey taste with fennel seed before. Maybe that could work.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 9:49 PM on July 30, 2012

Get some mushrooms, slice them up, fry them in butter, then mix them in with the sauce. Then grate some parmesan on top.

This is partly based on lunasol's comment about umami and partly just because I would do that even if nothing was wrong with the sauce.
posted by RobotHero at 10:33 PM on July 30, 2012

Too much tomato paste will cause a metallic taste.
posted by misspat at 6:34 AM on July 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

cheap tomato paste and too much of it is a good source of metallic tasting sauces.
posted by couchdive at 10:27 AM on July 31, 2012