As I read Michael's bean soup recipe above, it made me wonderful about canned tomatoes...

C

cheezz

Well-known member
Lately the cans I have been using have tasted... well, 'tinny'.

Does anyone recommend a favorite brand of canned tomatoes?

 
Trader Joe's. They were discontinued for a while, then replaced by an inferior supplier, but now

it seems the brand is back up to par. And very affordable, compared to Italian imports.

(I'm humming "Something Wonderful" from "The King and I.")

 
Trader Joe's

I just read a blog yesterday (but now can't recall which one) that did a blind taste test of 16 brands of canned tomatoes priced high to low and TJ's was the overall winner.

 
I'd have to say I was disappointed in the last two cans of Muir diced tomatoes

I love their puree and sauce and I bought the diced, assuming that product would be as good.

I was making Charlie's Puttanesca (thanks again, Charlie's Wife For Not Wanting Diamonds) for a friend, so I wanted the finished dish to look nice. I pulled each diced piece out and had to cut away yellow cores from almost every one. By the time I was done, almost half of the can was in the "don't use" pile. Second can was the same.

This was a big disappointment since they cost more. Plus I had to pull out a can of plain old Hunts to make up the difference for the recipe without stopping to run to the store for more.

As for taste, I'm willing to pay extra, but these weren't even that much better in taste.

Of course, there is the issue of the amount of chemicals in the Hunts versus organic Muir.

 
Ha, CI's J/A issue has a tasting of diced tomatoes. Hunts was their first choice, with Muir Glen

coming in second. You might enjoy reading how they came to their findings and other info here, but the actual results are password protected.

However, Recommended were the Hunts and Muir Glen.

Recommended with reservations, Del Monte. Also the petite diced Contadina and Cento.

Not recommended were Contadina diced and Hunt"s petite diced, weird, huh? I think they address that in the article. They also don't recommend Red Pack or Red Gold diced and Furmano's diced.

Okay, that's their opinion, but I did find the article interesting, especially about the companies always experimenting and changing their product.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/overview.asp?docid=25627

 
Speaking of canned toms, I purchased a big can of whole toms from Cosco. I recall someone suggested

they were good to oven dry. Have not tried it yet. On the list, and the big can is calling me! The can was relatively inexpensive. Hoping for good results. Using Steve's recipe.

Has anyone tried this?

Best,

Barb

 
Btw, can you get Tuttorosso there? They come in whole and crushed and got good

ratings from CI in the past. I really like them, as well as Cento San Marzano.

 
Note: I buy the whole tomatoes, not crushed or diced. In general, manufacturers save the best

tomatoes for canning whole, while the inferior ones are used for diced or crushed. Once, when I couldn't find the Bionaturae whole tomatoes, I tried the diced, and I noticed a big difference in taste - Then I did some research and found out why.

 
Good tip and that makes sense for mfgrs to not expose obvious defects if any. By the same token,

I won't buy marinated meats from a grocer or supermarket because I heard years ago that typically, meat that is going off is presented this way. Surely it looks appealing and easy to make, but you can't look at the raw meat's color when marinated. Also, water content is added to the per pound price within USDA guidelines - or we hope so!

P.S. Meryl, did you see the thread on Eggs in Purgatory?! How can our FAVORITE food go to hell? What's the matter with our world these days??!

 
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