rating crushed tomatoes: Cook's Illustrated

As learned home cooks, we’ve all been taught that unless you have wonderful home-grown tomatoes, you’re better off cooking with canned. Additionally, we’ve been taught to buy whole tomatoes in their own juice and crush them ourselves. Cook’s Illustrated has also followed these dictates and recently changed their mind after testing several crushed tomatoes.

The good news is that we can put away the food processor. Our tasters liked some brands of crushed tomatoes more than the diced or whole tomatoes pulsed in the machine, which fell into the middle of the rankings.

I’d link directly to the article, but Cook’s Illustrated is a pay-to-access site. I’ll gladly email you a copy and the findings PDF if you pm me and don’t tell anybody, but here’s the skinny in order of preference:

Recommended
Tottorosso crushed tomatoes in thick puree with basil (I’ve never seen this brand)
Muir Glen Organic crushed tomatoes with basil (no surprise here)
Hunt’s organic crushed tomatoes (Hunts!?!)
Redpack crushed tomatoes in thick puree
Progresso crushed tomatoes with added puree

Recommended with reservations
Pastene kitchen ready ground peeled tomatoes
Hunt’s crushed tomatoes
Del Monte organic crushed tomatoes
Contadina crushed Roma style tomatoes

Not recommended
Cento all-purpose crushed tomatoes

I kind of doubt I’ll change my habits. I like the feeling of the bursting tomato flesh between my fingers. It’s food for thought though.

( I wonder if they did a comparison with genuine San Marzano tomatoes?)

-ramon

ATK (the Cook's Illustrated show on PBS) aired a canned tomato tasting segment last week - the conclusion was that all the American brands were better than the imports from Italy - apparently (according to the show) it has to do with the way imported tomatoes are taxed (canned in cooked puree rather than juice).

Personally, my tomato seedlings are coming up nicely.

Funny... that's the exact opposite of my experience. And I like to think I'm not blinded by the label.

Damnit, now I'm going to have to do a blind tasting.

nr706 wrote:the conclusion was that all the American brands were better than the imports from Italy

Boy, if that's true, I've been barking up the wrong tree for way too many years (wouldn't be the first time!). Cook's Illustrated has rarely steered me wrong, except if one was seeking authenticity. And that arrogant bastard in the bow tie grows on you (I especially like the play between him and the female cooks).

-ramon

My experience is certainly colored by cooking at my mom's knee(i.e. she taught me that whole tomatoes are the best).

The chopped, crushed, ground tomatoes I've used over the years(just to check out the competition texture-wise) have *always* tended towards the rubbery/preserved...no matter the brand, provenance, or variety.


oddly enough, the tomatoes I buy at the farmer's markets every summer and stew, chop, ---and omg! freeze don't have that over-processed texture.

I always choose canned stewed/whole over otherwise broken down.

I'd never buy tomatoes w/ basil. If my recipe calls for basil, I'll add it myself.

Christopher Gordon wrote:I always choose canned stewed/whole over otherwise broken down.

Canned - I always buy whole.
I like the fresh ones that way too

I wonder if the canning/brand issues translate to the whole ones as well. They weren't tasting straight out of the can, were they?
And non-American brands seem rather small in sample size (I don't know the provenance of the listed ones).

Te key, at least according to the CI tests, is to buy canned tomatoes that are canned with juice, not puree. They claim canning with puree gives the tomatoes that "canned" not fresh taste. That was their point about America VS. Italian tomatoes. They claim that there is a much lower tariff if they import tomatoes packed in puree because they can be called "cooked" according to customs. The ones in juice are considered a raw ingredient. Although I have no reason to doubt this legal opinion, I'm not sure I'm ready to buy into the fact that all Italian imported tomatoes are packed in puree. Quick...someone check out a can of Carmilitas.

stevez wrote:I'm not sure I'm ready to buy into the fact that all Italian imported tomatoes are packed in puree. Quick...someone check out a can of Carmilitas.

I have four brands of Italian tomatoes: Regina, La Valle, La Bella, and Il Miracolo de San Gennaro.

All contain puree except for Il Miracolo di San Gennaro which contains juice. I would also say that, of these brands, it is my least favorite and the most expensive. Actually, I'm not really thrilled with any of these brands.

Bill/SFNM

nr706 wrote: the conclusion was that all the American brands were better than the imports from Italy - apparently (according to the show) it has to do with the way imported tomatoes are taxed (canned in cooked puree rather than juice).

I'm not sure if this is connected to the puree vs. juice issue, but many of the cans of Italian whole tomatoes I've purchased seemed to make my sauce a lot sweeter. (Stevez suggested adding a little bit of red wine vinegar to cut it...a good tip.)

Off-topic, but I've been using the sauce as part of a recipe for Bucatini al Lipari from the NYTimes a few months ago. An amazing nut pesto is part of this recipe, and I've been using that stuff on everything lately--it worked particularly well tossed with sauteed green beans.

Hi All,

I also love being a paid subscriber of Cook's Illustrated. I got the subscription at a 1/2 off price and the amount of information I've received has been easily worth the price.

When you guys are referring to the juice Vs. puree topic, I believe your talking specifically abut the Test Kitchens canned whole tomato tests.

The canned diced tomato test had given very different results in the juice Vs. puree category. Of the recommended canned diced tomato's three of the five were in puree...and two of the five had added basil.

Again, I do like Cook's Illustrated and ATK but I think you need to qualify their test results as being rated (blind) by a panel of consumers. It's not the taste results given from Christopher Kimball or the other chefs at ATK.

take care all,
dan

gonefishin wrote:Again, I do like Cook's Illustrated and ATK but I think you need to qualify their test results as being rated (blind) by a panel of consumers. It's not the taste results given from Christopher Kimball or the other chefs at ATK.

Thank you Dan for helping to clarify that we seem to be mixing up two different reports. One on whole canned tomatoes reported at America's Test Kitchen, and one on crushed canned tomatoes reported in Cook's Illustrated.

To further clarify, the test on crushed tomatoes was not done by a panel of consumers, but by "twenty members of Cook's Illustrated staff." I doubt the used the copy boy, but you never know.

-ramon

Ramon wrote:

To further clarify, the test on crushed tomatoes was not done by a panel of consumers, but by "twenty members of Cook's Illustrated staff." I doubt the used the copy boy, but you never know.

-ramon

ahhh...thanks! More confusing clarified


dan

It's my impression that ALL of the testing that ATK does is done by staff people. It's not a man-in-the-street type of survey. They try to use pros who can verbalize the tasting results in order to help quantify it. Of course, I've been wrong before.

stevez wrote:It's my impression that ALL of the testing that ATK does is done by staff people. It's not a man-in-the-street type of survey. They try to use pros who can verbalize the tasting results in order to help quantify it. Of course, I've been wrong before.

Well, you're half right. There's a book called "Inside America's Test Kitchen" where they describe the process. The tasters are a combination of staff members, hand-picked experts, and regular old volunteers. The idea is to represent a broad range of palates.

Best,
Michael

I was sorry to see that they omitted my favorite: Pomi chopped tomatoes (in the cardboard box). They don't have any citric acid, and I think they're perfect for all my cooked-tomato needs.

When the scandal erupted in Italy over corruption in the Parmalat company, my greatest worry was a selfish one: what will happen to their subsidiary, Pomi? Will this endanger my boxed tomatoes? Fortunately, they are still available.

By the way, does anybody else here test recipes for Cook's Illustrated? I've just started doing it and am having fun.

MariaTheresa wrote:I was sorry to see that they omitted my favorite: Pomi chopped tomatoes (in the cardboard box). They don't have any citric acid, and I think they're perfect for all my cooked-tomato needs.

When the scandal erupted in Italy over corruption in the Parmalat company, my greatest worry was a selfish one: what will happen to their subsidiary, Pomi? Will this endanger my boxed tomatoes? Fortunately, they are still available.

These are my favorite too, and your worry was exactly mine as well!

Now, if Pomi would just make organic tomatoes, then I'd be all set.......

stevez wrote:Te key, at least according to the CI tests, is to buy canned tomatoes that are canned with juice, not puree.

I did hear the guy say that, but maybe I'm missing a key point of this argument, because Red Pack was designated the second favorite after Muir Glen, and it is packed in puree. Confused,

David "Or perhaps exception proves rule" Hammond

I realise there are a lot of fans of CI out there and it may well be possible to convince me that they have their strengths but as far as I'm concerned, if one has any interest in Italian cuisine, one should not pay any heed whatsoever to what they say about that topic. Put simply: they don't know what they're talking about.

Antonius

I had this recent episode of ATK on my DVR just saw it the other day. I was pretty shocked to hear that they recommended the domestic over the Italian.

I realize that being packed in juice vs. puree must make a difference but it was hard to swallow since all I've heard for the last few years is that San Marzano tomatoes were superior.

Has anyone done a tasting yet of Italian vs US?