My chef friend is arguing with me and IMO she is just straight up fucking wrong. Cooking tomatoes to death during the canning process isn't going to do any favors for the texture or flavor. Every canned diced tomato i've had has been gross (and the dice is always too big and ugly)

I think she's 100% confusing a comparison between QUALITY canned tomatoes i.e. real san marzano tomatoes versus shitty greenhouse grown tomatoes but she's insisting that no actually canned tomatoes are just better

I just want to get a consensus but i'm going to continue to disagree with anyone else who is wrong about this

  • piccolo [any]
    ·
    4 days ago

    I'd say if tomatoes are out of season and you're cooking them anyways, like in a stew or a sauce, even bad canned tomatoes are probably better. If you have access to good fresh tomatoes, they can be better than most canned tomatoes, but like high quality canned ones are hard to beat.

    Also, the less processed the canned tomato, the better it is. If you want the best tomato flavour, get whole canned tomatoes, rather than diced or crushed.

    • AmericaDelendaEst [comrade/them]
      ·
      4 days ago

      I'd say if tomatoes are out of season and you're cooking them anyways, like in a stew or a sauce, even bad canned tomatoes are probably better. If you have access to good fresh tomatoes, they can be better than most canned tomatoes, but like high quality canned ones are hard to beat.

      Well yeah but that's what I mean when i say i think she's confusing a comparison between quality canned tomatoes and shitty fresh ones. She's saying canned is always better because the canning process magically makes it more flavorful. MY OPINION is that there are volatile flavor compounds in fresh tomatoes and by only using canned you miss on a greater variety and depth of flavor.

      Also cherry tomatoes blitzed through the food processor just fucking look better than gross chunks of canned diced

      • hotspur@lemmy.ml
        ·
        4 days ago

        Yeah no, I’ve always heard canned tomatoes are best because you’re getting ripe ones, even if you’re using it in the middle of winter. There’s nothing intrinsic to canning that is adding flavor I don’t think.

        Maybe the other reason is that the canned ones are usually Roma or preferred and maybe random people off the street might try to make a sauce with beefsteak tomatoes or something.

        I like using canned also because I dont have to do the whole thing where you Blanche the tomatoes cut an x in them and squeeE out all the seeds plus seed water/goo. It’s optional but makes a difference for a sauce of your using fresh tomatoes.