Best Tomato for making sauce? (forum)

johnmw1 starts with ...
Hi,

I'm doing a bit of research into what the best type of tomato is for making sauce, but because I'm a non tomato eater (I hate them but like my tomato sauce ie Heinz) I sort of have no idea.

I have just made my very first batch of sauce and I used Roma but to me it seemed a bit lame but then again it may have been the recipe I used?

My wife is keen on me making a batch with Black Russian as she loves BR but as to suitability for sauce making I'm not sure. She seems to say they are sweet and non acidic which I guess is an important factor for her.

I see the most mentioned tomatoes seem to be in no particular order Napoli, San Marzano, Green Zebra, Tommy Toe and Black Russian.

Which one would give me the best taste etc, your opinions please?

I had also thought about growing my own but figure it's way too late this time of year.

Thanks,
John

Time: 31st December 2013 11:50am

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Julie says...
It would be very unusual to see any of those in a supermarket. I think you would only find them at farmer's markets.

Time: 31st December 2013 8:41pm

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jakfruit etiquette says...
The story was that ketchup - tomato sauce was mainly apples ???
Italian paste types are used for Italian tomato sauce, ie San Marzano, Roma, and many others, mainly for the higher solids.
The Roma on the shelves now, may not be the original type ??
Not sure about Napoil, probably a paste ?
Green Zebra is green/striped, may produce odd coloured product, as I recall green yellow. same for Black Russian, red/black.
If you are growing them, many types of tomato avail as hierloom seed.
Have you considered Ezy Sauce as a base for your recipee ??


Time: 31st December 2013 9:50pm

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Jantina says...
Have to agree with you jakfruit. You can't go wrong with Ezy Sauce , any good quality tomato will do eg no mould etc but the paste tomatoes require less boiling down to thicken it and red toms produce the traditional red sauce.

Time: 1st January 2014 5:44am

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johnmw1 says...
Julie says...
It would be very unusual to see any of those in a supermarket. I think you would only find them at farmer's markets.

Hi Julie,

Yes I should have said that I have access to mainly Roma and BR's at the farmers market but also I'm looking at possibly growing something for next season (my very first attempt at growing anything).

jakfruit etiquette says...
The story was that ketchup - tomato sauce was mainly apples ???
Italian paste types are used for Italian tomato sauce, ie San Marzano, Roma, and many others, mainly for the higher solids.
The Roma on the shelves now, may not be the original type ??
Not sure about Napoil, probably a paste ?
Green Zebra is green/striped, may produce odd coloured product, as I recall green yellow. same for Black Russian, red/black.
If you are growing them, many types of tomato avail as hierloom seed.
Have you considered Ezy Sauce as a base for your recipee ??

Hi Jakfruit,

Having read one of the other lengthy older threads here about tomatoes and what people like is how I came together with this list of mine.

One of my problems is that I'm probably reading far too much into it and visiting more web sites than I should be which just confuses the issue.

Likewise with the tomato sauce recipe, there are that many out there all claiming to be great grandma's famous recipe. But most had a similar point about using meaty tomatoes which have less seed etc. But me being the non tomato eater that I am, I'm not sure which is a good choice.

The Roma I bought from the farmers market were supposedly heirloom but hey I have no idea?

You raise a good point about the BR and the GZ, I had not considered how it may actually look like as a sauce but I'm under pressure from the wife you see. :-)

Jantina says...
Have to agree with you jakfruit. You can't go wrong with Ezy Sauce , any good quality tomato will do eg no mould etc but the paste tomatoes require less boiling down to thicken it and red toms produce the traditional red sauce.

Hi Jantina,

Must admit to never knowing about it before Xmas day when someone else mentioned the same thing about Ezy Sauce. I have since found it in the supermarket and it even has it's own recipe on it with lots of apples included, so seriously thinking about this next time around.

This first batch of mine I added all the spices and herbs separately but perhaps I did not add enough?

What about the preservatives in the EZY Sauce, or am I being too fussy ( I know it probably doesn't compare to the number of preservatives in my Heinz)?

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Cheers,
John


Time: 1st January 2014 11:12am

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Jantina says...
Hi johnmw1, the preservatives in Ezy Sauce are the food acid itself and then the sugar and salt you add. I basically follow their recipe but don't add apples and omit the garlic when I don't have any (but it's good with it.)
As for still growing tomatoes, sure you probably can. Here at Mt Gambier I'm usually picking the last of the tomatoes and corn in June before any frosts arrive.
If all else fails the growers have cheap boxes of tomatoes at the Main North Rd market as the season progresses.
Every yard has it's own little microclimates, the only way to find out how early or late you can grow things is to give it a go.

Time: 1st January 2014 11:18am

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johnmw1 says...
Hi Jantina,

Ok, did not realise that about the ezy sauce. Any reason why you don't add the apples?

Yes I would like to try and grow still if it's not too late but assume I will only need 2 or 3 plants if they yield what they're supposed to. I will now have to start my search for seed, and some pots etc to grow them in, any tips?

I bought the 10KG of Roma for $6.99 at the farmers market at Wayville showgrounds but they were a bit mushy towards the bottom of the box and I threw maybe 2 KG away to the chooks.

Cheers,
John

Time: 1st January 2014 12:07pm

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Jantina says...
Hi johnmw1, I don't add apples because I have plenty of tomatoes.
To grow your own I personally would just go and buy a punnet of Grosse Lisse, a good old reliable variety, and go from there. Any excess is easily turned into tomato puree for spaghetti or pizzas or stews etc or freeze to make more sauce later (ah the fragrance of sauce cooking on a winters day!).To do that I just wash them, slice in half taking out the green stem bit and freeze them in 1 kg lots.
Bad luck about the mushy toms in the box. Of course the farmer would not have been making any money at $6.99 for 10 kg either. A bit mushy is ok for immediate cooking use but I would not make something that has to keep, like sauce, from them.
I've also made plum sauce with the Ezy Sauce (in a bad tomato year there are usually lots of Satsuma plums here)bit of a pill to take all the pips out but the sauce is delicious and whichever I make the whole extended family put in their orders each year.
The whole thing seems a bit intimidating the first time you make it but it soon becomes easy as.
To simplify the process I chuck in the onions and garlic whole(peeled) and when cooked instead of sieving it all I put 2 cupfulls at a time in the blender and then put it back to cook down as per instructions Much easier.


Time: 1st January 2014 2:33pm

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johnmw1 says...

Jantina says...
Hi johnmw1, I don't add apples because I have plenty of tomatoes.
To grow your own I personally would just go and buy a punnet of Grosse Lisse, a good old reliable variety, and go from there. Any excess is easily turned into tomato puree for spaghetti or pizzas or stews etc or freeze to make more sauce later (ah the fragrance of sauce cooking on a winters day!).To do that I just wash them, slice in half taking out the green stem bit and freeze them in 1 kg lots.
Bad luck about the mushy toms in the box. Of course the farmer would not have been making any money at $6.99 for 10 kg either. A bit mushy is ok for immediate cooking use but I would not make something that has to keep, like sauce, from them.
I've also made plum sauce with the Ezy Sauce (in a bad tomato year there are usually lots of Satsuma plums here)bit of a pill to take all the pips out but the sauce is delicious and whichever I make the whole extended family put in their orders each year.
The whole thing seems a bit intimidating the first time you make it but it soon becomes easy as.
To simplify the process I chuck in the onions and garlic whole(peeled) and when cooked instead of sieving it all I put 2 cupfulls at a time in the blender and then put it back to cook down as per instructions Much easier.

Yes good idea, I may have a wander around Bunnings to see what they have.

The toms were more than mushy as they were starting to go mouldy.

It took me all of most of the day to make my first batch, especially with sterilising, boiling, mouleing(sp) and then boiling down to the required thickness etc and yes I was intimidated as I was not getting a lot of support from the wife who thought it a waste of time. Anyway I think she was quite surprised with the end product and has been happy to offer it as a small Xmas gift and has also been keen to use it in our own cooking.

Like your idea with putting the garlic and onions in whole and blending later.

Cheers,
John

Time: 1st January 2014 3:17pm

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johnmw1 says...
Well I went along to Bunnings to have a look at what they had to offer with seed varieties and seedlings and what a sad and sorry lot they were, not impressed at all!

Time: 4th January 2014 4:26pm

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Brain says...
someone once told me that in modern tomato sauce, they add in choko as a filler. Probably the same way as apple is used I guess but only cheaper.

I think your best bet is to buy some seeds online (from small businesses) and if you want taste, go for the heirloom varieties. What people don't realise is, modern supermarket tomatos are grown for color, appearence and storage but not necessiarly for taste.

I think most seed packets is $3 to $4 each and tomatos are really easy to germinate. (keep moist and in semi-shade to begin with).


Time: 6th January 2014 11:47am

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johnmw1 says...

Brain says...
someone once told me that in modern tomato sauce, they add in choko as a filler. Probably the same way as apple is used I guess but only cheaper.

I think your best bet is to buy some seeds online (from small businesses) and if you want taste, go for the heirloom varieties. What people don't realise is, modern supermarket tomatos are grown for color, appearence and storage but not necessiarly for taste.

I think most seed packets is $3 to $4 each and tomatos are really easy to germinate. (keep moist and in semi-shade to begin with).

Thanks for your reply.

Well as it would have it I have visited another couple of nurseries but they also seemed to have generic brand seedlings and seeds so I decided to give them a miss as well.

Unbeknown to me Diggers have a shop here in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens which I visited yesterday and I picked up some San Marzano, Black Russian, Green Zebra and Tommy Toe seeds.

The shop assistant seemed to think it's probably too late in the season now to start planting tomatoes but hey I now have plenty of seed so shall plant a couple of each and see which one the wife enjoys more?

Cheers,
John

Time: 7th January 2014 9:25am

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