San Marzano Tomatoes

[DonRocks]

"San Marzanos, 'The Bible of Tomatoes'" by Tim Carman on WashingtonPost.com

Original reporting and interesting journalism - a dying art in this cut-and-paste city of "business models," and a beautiful thing, worthy of acknowledgment and citation.

There's also plenty more discussion about canned tomatoes, and also the flickering, teasing possibility of finding fresh San Marzanos.

[Mark Dedrick]

Agreed, I really enjoyed the article.  Very interesting, and I learned things. 

[Mark Slater]

Whole Foods sells all the different styles of San Marzanos, diced, pureed, crushed. I bought San Marzano marinara once and really disliked it. I found it one dimensional and lacking in complexity.

[monavano]

"San Marzanos, 'The Bible of Tomatoes'" by Tim Carman on WashingtonPost.com

Original reporting and interesting journalism - a dying art in this cut-and-paste city of "business models," and a beautiful thing, worthy of acknowledgment and citation.

There's also plenty more discussion about canned tomatoes, and also the flickering, teasing possibility of finding fresh San Marzanos.

I bought fresh San Marzanos a couple years ago, I want to say at the Kingstowne market. They were like your average supermarket Roma, which isn't a bad thing, but nothing transformative.

[ol_ironstomach]

"San Marzanos, 'The Bible of Tomatoes'" by Tim Carman on WashingtonPost.com

Original reporting and interesting journalism - a dying art in this cut-and-paste city of "business models," and a beautiful thing, worthy of acknowledgment and citation.

There's also plenty more discussion about canned tomatoes, and also the flickering, teasing possibility of finding fresh San Marzanos.

Let's not overlook what is, for my money, the most useful comparison tasting this board has ever conducted.

In the years since I first read this, I have tried maybe a dozen other brands of canned tomatoes in my tomato/sausage/spinach risotto, but gubeen _always_ notices if I stray from the default Hunt's.  Like Libby's canned pumpkin, this is a product that has impressively and reliably optimized its niche.

[monavano]

Let's not overlook what is, for my money, the most useful comparison tasting this board has ever conducted.

In the years since I first read this, I have tried maybe a dozen other brands of canned tomatoes in my tomato/sausage/spinach risotto, but gubeen _always_ notices if I stray from the default Hunt's.  Like Libby's canned pumpkin, this is a product that has impressively and reliably optimized its niche.

Last week, we were away on vacation, making a large dinner for the family and I made ziti with meatballs. I made the tomato sauce using Marcella Hazan's simple recipe, using the "best" canned whole tomatoes I could find, Hunts. I also added Hunts puree of tomato and it was terrific!

[MC Horoscope]

Thanks for the Hunts tip.

Some of our homegrown tomatoes are San Marzanos and others are Romas of a different name, but they all peel so easily for sauce if you just pinch them after blanching. The other garden tomatoes are much tougher to work with.

[Fishinnards]

I think the entire taste test is flawed due to lack of control for sodium content (which I posted in the thread). I discovered this when I followed the recommendation for Hunts and discovered it had almost 10x the amount of sodium as the the kind I'd been using previously. Check the label and taste before salting your sauce.