Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with tomatoes

Can I salvage these tomatoes?

Orinda — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:15:45 -0800

While trying to cook a large quantity of tomatoes for sauce, I accidentally burned a few on the bottom of the pan. Now the burnt aroma pervades the entire (did I mention large) batch of tomatoes. Is there any way to salvage this project? I'm trying to make tomato sauce.

I started by cutting up raw tomatoes and chucking them into my biggest, deepest pot. Once there was a few-inches-deep layer of tomato chunks in the bottom of the pan, I turned the heat on high underneath and continued cutting and chucking tomato chunks. After a while, the chunks became difficult to stir around because the pan was so deep. I stupidly left the pan unstirred on top of high heat. Not long after I finished cutting up the tomatoes and adding them to the pan, my nose notified me that the bottom layer of tomatoes had burned. Uh oh.

A mild but noticeable burned smell seems to pervade the entire potful of tomato chunks, which are in varying states of cookedness. I pulled the rawest layer of tomato chunks off the top of the pan, thinking I might be able to salvage them, but that still leaves at least 20 lbs of tomatoes sitting in what is now a burnt-tomato-scented broth.

Advice? Do I have to throw out the whole lot? If I dig out the un-burnt tomatoes can I continue cooking them in a clean pan, or will the resultant sauce have that unpleasant burned flavor to it? Would it make a difference if I strained off the liquid and just cooked what's left of the un-burnt tomato flesh? Is it true that a peeled potato can "absorb the burnt taste"?

Tomatofilter: 2% chance I'm crazy; 98% chance something (good) is up with our country's tomatos.

jjjjjjjijjjjjjj — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:28:28 -0800

Tomato question: Did something happen late last Autumn that could have caused low-priced/budget tomatoes in (U.S.) fast-food restaurants and supermarkets to become radically better tasting? My perception of increased quality had a sudden onset, was not chain-specific, not geographically localized, and is shared by a handful of friends. (tl;drers, question is as stated above; the screed below is just the boring details. I suspect that help might come from food/soil/earth scientists, ag-economists, farmers, restaurant suppliers, or some other industry insider. Barring that, I suppose there's an outside chance that help might come in the form of two men in white coats dragging me to a rubber room.)

Last November a friend made a salad with sliced tomatoes that tasted amazing. I asked if she had sprung for some fancy brand or got them from a ritzy store; she said no, that they were the cheapest fresh type at the local chain supermarket. I didn't believe her but thought nothing of it at the time.

Within a few days I ordered a $2 burger at a fast food chain and was treated to a fucking amazing tomato there, as well. The floodgates then opened, and for, say, two weeks following, every tomato I ate (from whichever restaurant or grocery chain), tasted fantastic. At the time I chalked this up to some major regional (I live in St. Louis) supplier (Sysco?) stumbling onto a great shipment or something. Again, thought nothing further of it at the time.

At that point, and for the next 1.5 months, I traveled to: several New England states, Central Texas, and Northern California, eating at dives and fast-food joints for most every meal, and--I shit you not--in perhaps 70% of the meals I consumed was what I will call, for brevity "the SuperTomato".

I feel confident in the stark difference of the two; if you spend any amount of time eating tomatos, I'm betting that you'll agree that the difference between a "bad" and a "good" tomato is about as subtle as the difference between a whisper and a shout. The things I am describing taste like completely different things, it's not just a slight or stepwise increase in quality. I feel entirely confident that in a single-blind taste test I would correctly identify "SuperTomato" from "old-and-busted cheap tomato" 100 times out of 100.

My Question to food/soil/atmospheric scientists, agricultural economists, restaurant buyers and the like: Barring delusion on my part, what could be responsible for a flood of great tomatoes across the country at the bottom-end of the tomato pricing tier? This is either a real phenomenon, or the damndest case of my senses tricking me that I've ever seen.

Confirmation Bias? Maybe... hard to tell, obviously. But I've tried to screen for it at every step. I've asked, say, 8 friends and got 5 blank looks, 1 "yeah, now that you mention it", and 2 soul-piercing, thousand-yard stares of disbelief followed by a "You've noticed it, too?!"

I'm not a gastronome or a foodie or a "supertaster" or anything close. I'm just an average guy who eats average, cheap food. I have always eaten a normal amount of cheap store-bought tomatoes and until this happened, had uniformly normal reactions to them. I have no history of sensory hallucinations, no recent head-trauma, mental illness, or significant lifestyle changes. Please tell me what the fuck is up with my 'maters. Apologies for the length. Thanks.

It's like drinking your salad!

dancinglamb — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:43:20 -0800

I need your best gazpacho recipes! I've been jonesing for gazpacho for days. We went to this restaurant for dinner a couple weeks ago and I had an amazing gazpacho as a first course. I can't stop thinking about it. I've perused my standard go-to, epicurious.com, but I'm not sure which concoction to go with. When in doubt, I figure the Hivemind would know best.

Mefites, hit me with your best gazpacho recipes.

Thanks!

Are my tomatoes too crowded?

slipperynirvana — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:38:24 -0800

Newbie gardening: Are my tomatoes too crowded? My tomato plants have grown beyond my wildest expectations! Now the entire garden plot is a thick mass of vines, and the cherries and larger varieties are appearing aplenty. However, I'm wondering if they're TOO crowded--many of the tomatoes aren't getting direct sun because they're buried in the mass of vines. Will this prevent them from ripening well? Should I go in and thin things out a bit? If so, any suggestions as to how to do so?

I'm filled with red-pride at my first crop--help me not screw it up!

Will my planter box kill me?

thinds66 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:25:32 -0800

Is heat-treated kiln-dried lumber safe for a raised planter box that may house vegetables? I built a big planter box early this year out of some scrap (HT/KD) 2x8's. Initially, this was going to be home to some flowers to attract hummingbirds. My plan changed, the flowers are going on the deck, and now the big planter box is empty.

I know that pressure-treated lumber is filled with icky chemicals and is not for use around growing vegetables, but I'm not sure if heat-treated, kiln-dried lumber (HT/KD) is just as evil.

Can someone share their expertise in this?
Thanks!

Rotten Tomatoes for Books

clueless22 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:05:12 -0800

Is there a website where it aggregates all the reviews of a book like Rotten Tomatoes does for movies?

Promoting sun-dried tomato awareness

halogen — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:51:16 -0800

We bought a gigantic jar of sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil. What are your favorite recipes that incorporate them? I only needed a few of them for a burger sauce based on mayonnaise and Dijon mustard, but my parents went and bought a huge jar from Costco. What else could I be doing with the sun-dried tomatoes? I prepare homemade pasta fairly often, and I like to bake focaccia, so any recipes featuring those two would be great. Other than that, my family grills salmon very, very often, makes salads every single night, and vegetarian recipes are great, too!

Bonus points for anything that can be thrown on a gas grill.

Juglone paranoia! Please don't kill my tomatoes, black walnut trees!

palegirl — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:10:26 -0800

I have 2 black walnut trees in my yard. I am starting a vegetable garden this year. How should I proceed to maximize my chances for success considering the toxicity of the trees? The trees are in the south, lower, shady side of the yard. The small raised-bed garden will be placed up on the north side, far out of their shade, I would guess maybe 20 yards away from the nearest tree. I haven't been able to find any information about how far the roots of the trees (which also produce juglone) reach.

I'm totally paranoid about compost, and at this point am not going to add any leaves at all from our yard to our compost. I did put some yard leaves into my small vermicompost bin in November without thinking -- now I'm not sure if I should even use that compost in the soil mix in the raised bed. (This makes me sad, but I don't want to poison my garden!)

I grabbed a bag of leaves from a yard in a different neighborhood, but now it's sitting in my garage because I'm paranoid that that bag might be contaminated with black walnut leaves. Wikipedia claims "About 65% of the annual wild harvest [of black walnut trees] comes from the U.S. state of Missouri" -- oh no! I may just avoid all leaves for compost, but I wonder -- will hot composting the leaves eliminate the juglone? Will vermicomposting?

What level of exposure to juglone will harm (some of) my vegetables? We definitely want to grow tomatoes and peppers and are considering doing some in pots and some in the raised-bed as a comparison, although I'd prefer not to have to grow them in pots.

Grey Water on Veggies and Illness Transmission

Tsisqua47 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:05:38 -0800

My husband used old grey water (daughter's bath water, a few days old) to water potted capsicum/pepper plants (with fruit) and tomato plants (not yet fruiting) and then came down with vomitting that night. I hope it is only a gastro-intestinal virus. It is clear that the grey water was old, and he should not have used it. That's not the question. My question is this: Do we have to cook all the fruit that are currently on the plants, even if they need a few more weeks to ripen? Say I pick all the fruit off now, then what about subsequent fruit? I was hoping to keep these pepper plants for a few years and we do like to eat the tomatoes and peppers raw in salads.

Tomatofilter: why won't mine ripen?

lonefrontranger — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:31:57 -0800

Tomatofilter: Why aren't my tomatoes red? The mister and I have a small garden in Denver, Colorado. We got a Roma tomato and it's got plenty of green fruit on it (has had for weeks now) but so far I've seen no signs of ripening. This plant was put in from a 6" pot in early-mid June. It's extremely healthy and shows no signs of blight, fungus, etc. It just continues to throw green fruits that won't ripen.

My concern is the short growing season here. Nights here are already going down to the low 50s F, and we've already had our first autumn snowstorm up at 9000' (we're at 5,280). If these don't ripen up soon then I'll have to build a cold frame or something which I'm not really eager to deal with.

How can I encourage the fruits to ripen?

Or, alternatively, what can I do with dozens of green tomatoes? I don't much like them fried, before you ask.

Please help me with my poor tomato plant!

farfaraway — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:28:58 -0800

How do I nurse a very sick tomato plant back to health? I gave it far too much tomato feed by mistake, and a day later the leaves are horribly droopy/wilted (but still green), though my tomatoes are still looking like they're ripening. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best to recover it? It's an indoor variety, grown in a foil pouch if that helps.

Learning to like tomatoes

adiabat — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:16:31 -0800

I love tomatoes. My boyfriend hates tomatoes. How can I help him at least tolerate tomatoes, so that we might co-exist in culinary peace? He's open to the idea of learning to like tomatoes — in fact, he really wants to like tomatoes, both for my sake and because he isn't otherwise a picky eater. After years of avoiding dishes that included tomatoes, he's expressed a cautious interest in learning to eat them. He may have had allergy issues as a child, although he no longer seems to be allergic to them and just intensely dislikes them. (He doesn't mind ketchup or tomato paste too much, for instance, but once there are identifiable chunks of tomato in a dish, like stewed tomatoes or chunky salsa, he won't eat it.)

What's the best way to work up to the nirvana that is biting into a garden-ripe tomato, fresh off a vine in the backyard sun? We are both of the mindset that many food dislikes can be overcome with open-minded repetition, but at the same time, I'd hate to ruin him to tomatoes forever by taking too big of a step right away.

Where would you start? Should we cook things with tomatoes that don't have any tomato-taste to them? Or things that taste like tomatoes but can't be texturally identified as such? What's the ladder we should be working our way up? Recipes are welcomed.

Aerogarden gone wild... what now?

Wylie Kyoto — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:05:34 -0800

My Aerogarden has gone totally haywire! What can I do? After seeing an Aerogarden as a Christmas gift suggestion here in the green, I got one myself. I've been growing tomatoes, and after one unsuccessful batch (they rotted off at the bases early in the game) I started anew and now I actually have little green tomatoes growing! My Aerogarden was smoothly going along turning on at 7:00 AM and off at 11:00 PM. Then this morning it suddenly went on at 5:20 AM (it's in the bedroom, so this caused me to dream I was having a stroke), and then began to flash on and off erratically. All the lights on the front panel went on as well, blinking on and off in no particular pattern. The different plant setting indicators started flashing in a circle. This went on for a bit and then I couldn't stand it anymore and unplugged it and went back to sleep.

At seven I plugged it in again for more of the same. I've left it on because intermittent flashing light is probably better than nothing, but I'm very concerned. And I was so close to a crop, too!

I've emailed Aerogarden's Customer Service, but since this is a concern and not an order I don't expect to be hearing from them in a hurry. I've had this Aerogarden since December. Anybody else have one of these devices act up like this? Should it be breaking down so quickly? Is there something I can do to troubleshoot this? After all this, I want the dang tomatoes!

Your favorite tomatoes suck.

bondcliff — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:16:44 -0800

Help me find the tomatoes Bertucci’s uses on their pizza or at least a close approximation. I think I make a pretty decent pizza at home. I’ve got the dough / crust down, cheese is a no-brainer, but the weak link is the sauce / tomatoes. I’ve been looking for a certain taste, a taste that Bertucci’s (A brick-oven pizza chain in the Northeast U.S.) gets in their tomatoes. I can only describe the taste as “bright.” There’s no acidic taste, just a very fresh tomato-ish flavor. If memory serves me well, Pizzeria Regina (the chain, I’ve sadly never eaten at the original) gets a similar fresh taste.

I believe when it comes to pizza simplicity is best. I usually use crushed San Marzano tomatoes and while tasty, they still don’t match up to the taste from Bertucci’s. I asked at a restaurant once and was told they use “Bertucci’s brand.” Certainly someone else makes these tomatoes.

As far as I can tell their “sauce” is just crushed tomatoes, which is what I prefer to use with maybe a little fresh basil. Is it a technique? The brick oven certainly helps the crust but I don’t think that’s the secret to the tomato flavor. Do they add a bucket of High Fructose Corn Syrup to every pizza?

I’ve used 6-in-1 brand tomatoes, which the pizza nazis on the pizza nerd forums suggest because they don’t add citric acid or something like that. These were ok, but not what I’m looking for. I’ve tried several other brands as well. I’ve done all manner of fresh (including direct from the garden), I’ve tried adding sugar, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, salt, etc. I’ve tried roasting the tomatoes ahead of time. I’ve made elaborate sauces and I’ve used nothing but sliced fresh tomateos. They all make a great product but I’ve still never been able to achieve the flavor I’m after.

I’ve seen that amazingly detailed site where the guy explains the steps he goes through to make a pizza. Great site but I know how to make a pizza already.

Please note I’m not looking for Your Favorite Sauce Recipe or your opinion of Bertucci’s pizza. I’m aware there are better pizzas around.

A free slice from Pizzeria Bondacliffo to whoever can find me these tomatoes.

How do we know if food used to be better?

L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:02:33 -0800

Were produce and meat really better in the old days? How can we be sure? The most recent Achewood got me thinking about food. Seems to me that in my youth, the tomatoes at the supermarket used to be more red. I've heard people of my mother's generation say that beef used to taste better, the way only the best beef does today. And now we have the idea that chicken used to taste more chickeny, at least to cartoon cats.

Here's my question: is there any way to determine objectively whether this is so? Sure, lots of people will tell you it is, but lots of people will tell you that teenage crime and pregnancy are higher than ever, even if it's not true. Can we be sure this isn't just a rose-colored -- or red-colored, in my case -- look back at the foods of a mythical youth?

How do I make my homemade salsa taste less tomatoey?

metacort — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:42:00 -0800

How do I make my homemade salsa taste less tomatoey? Basically, I'm no cook, but have tried making a blackbean and corn salsa with the following ingredients:

corn
blackbeans
tomato
onion
salt to taste (but not that much)

The ingredients all seem to be the basics to this type of salsa.
I usually just add the ingredients to taste, but have found no matter how little tomato I add, it overpowers the rest of the ingredients. This is my first attempt at making food that's not out of some box, so I have NO idea what I'm doing.

Because I'm trying to make the perfect salsa to my own taste, I usually put a tomato through a food processor because I don't like tomatoes to be so chunky like in most salsas. I've already tried leaving out most of the inside of the tomato. And what I don't get is that even super-chunky out-of-a-jar salsas don't have the tomatoey taste.

Am I simply missing a spice, or should I just give up on my first attempt at really making something other than rice-a-roni?

What to do with tomato skins

exceptinsects — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:59:51 -0800

Oh my god, it's FINALLY tomato season, but what can I do with all these tomato skins? I swear I read somewhere online within the last week or so that you can roast them in the oven and then grind them into a powder to sprinkle on things. But I can't find it anywhere.

Does anyone know what that recipe was, or failing that, something else to do with a bunch of tomato skins? I like to take them off when I make fresh tomato sauce, but they have a lot of flavor and it would be nice to use them for something.

Foodfilter: vegetable substitutes for pasta?

gregb1007 — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:15:42 -0800

Foodfilter: vegetable substitutes for pasta? As a low carber, I avoid flour and dough-based dishes most of the time, but I still think pasta sauces are great. Are there any vegetables/beans that would be for pouring pasta sauce on?

I kill baby plants!

thehmsbeagle — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:54:59 -0800

I kill baby plants! Help me, gardeners! So my problem is that I am unable to grow things from seed.

I do not, exactly, have a black thumb. Things I buy as plants grow vigorously, by and large. Also, I've read up on this problem, but all the gardening experts seem to think that seed-starting is incredibly easy, and don't give tips for MORONS such as myself.

When I grow things from seed, this is how it goes:

I plant the seeds in some variety of (sterile) starter mix or potting soil or those little discs that expand alarmingly when watered. I use new or clean pots. I plant the seeds at the recommended depth. I water thoroughly.

I put the pot/tray on my kitchen windowsill, which gets a reasonable, but not overwhelming, amount of light.

"Grow, grow, baby plants! " I say.

After a few days, the seeds sprout and grow! I cheer. But then, tragedy strikes. At about three, four days to a week post-sprout, the seedlings seem to stop growing.

The seedlings start to look sad. Not sick, mind you. Just... a general failure to thrive. They don't have bugs or look diseased or anything, they just stop growing. I nurse them along for another week or two with flagging hope.

Then I give up and buy generic tomato plants from the hardware store.

I want to be able to grow interesting things from seed! What am I doing wrong?

I realize that you're supposed to harden seedlings off, but surely not at four days? Am I overwatering? Are they not getting enough light? Am I planting the seeds too close together? The seedlings start to look depressed before they've gotten their first real leaf; should I be thinning right away? Should I maybe put them outside as soon as they sprout?

HELP. The only tomatoes I'm able to grow from seed are the vigorous plum tomatoes that volunteer themselves in the compost, which is totally unintentional and, frankly, kind of humiliating.

Any clear instructions on how to start plants from seed? A book or website would be very pleasing, too.

If it matters, I live in zone 10. (But the plantlets expire long before going outside. ARGH.)

Online Source For Tomato & Tomatillo Plants?

kickerofelves — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:18:49 -0800

Does anyone have a reputable online source for tomato and tomatillo plants? We prepared our garden beds last weekend, and are in the process of filling them with vegetable plants. Unfortunately, heirloom tomato and tomatillo plants are not to be found anywhere near us.

What's happening to our tomatoes?

anjamu — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:03:09 -0800

What's wrong with the tomatoes in our garden? First off, pictures:

From L-to-R, a less ripe (and less strangely textured) tomato, and a ripe one with full-fledged spiral on top.

The inside of a halved tomato with the same problem. The top was tough to cut (for a tomato - and, yes, I used my serrated knife).

We also have cherry tomatoes in our garden, and none of them seem to have this problem. The apartment's owner and tomato caretaker until the end of August (we are subletting) warned us that if they sat in the sun too long they would split, but he never mentioned this.

We are in Brooklyn, NY; we have had plenty of rain lately, alternating with plenty of sunshine. The weather has been above 65F (but never above about 82F) during the day since we moved here. As I said, we are not the original growers so I have no information on what products/fertilizers and what have you were used.

A Short Film About Tomatoes, Poverty

maryh — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:02:26 -0800

Does anyone know the name of a short film about the life cycle of a tomato? I think it begins at a farm and ends with homeless families scavenging through heaps of trash.... I think it was Portuguese. It began with an almost manic, Pythonesque tone, and grew bleaker as the the film went on. I never saw an English translation of it, and I'm hoping that in this bright new age of YouTube and Google Video I might find it online somewhere.
Thanks!

Not even a cherry.

yellowcandy — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 21:18:24 -0800

GardenFilter: Help! Our tomato plants are 6 feet tall and thriving in our NYC garden, but we can't get them to produce a single fruit. We grew them from seedlings (~2 inches tall) and they've taken to the big planter box where we've put them. No problems there. The issue seems to be that while they don't mind growing up and out, they won't bear fruit. Do we trim them? Cut back stems and stalks as we would a crepe myrtle? How can we get some tomatoes here?

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

kaseijin — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 17:47:12 -0800

I have a tomato that sat, neglected, on a countertop for longer than it probably should have. Instead of beginning to molder and rot, however, it began to sprout! It is now shooting off several little baby tomato plants. How can I best get these to some dirt and encourage them to live rather than to die a horrible, desiccated death at the hands of bad soil and my brown thumb?