Paste Tomato

[digitS']

Years ago, what am I saying, decades ago I grew some paste tomatoes called Porter. Strong flavored, very dense and meaty. Have not even seem them in forever.

Hey Marshall, I will be growing Porter again this year! So, you think of that as a "paste" tomato? I haven't been reading this thread because I don't grow paste tomatoes. I think of my grandmother's tomato as a saladette and it is a whole lot like Porter. Okay, it doesn't have a lot of that gel in it (or, what did Major called it? ). Anyway, I haven't cared for the taste of Roma-types because my first interest has been using tomatoes fresh. The "saladettes" are just fine fresh.

Mickey, you may want to think about Porter. It is supposed to be one that stands up to heat and dryness well. BER didn't bother it when I grew it before but I guess I only had it once. Grandmother's tomato is all but identical fruit-wise and I've grown that for over 20 years.

Maybe "this tomato nut" should grow paste-types. I certainly do freeze a lot of sauce for pasta!

Steve

BJ - you might want to try Porter, also. It is from the old Porter Seed Company in Texas. There is also the "Porter Improved" but I wanted the one like Grandma's. All non-hybrids.

 

[Mickey328]

Hmmm...never heard of a Porter. Reckon it's one I'd need to order cuz I've not seen it locally. So far the ones I've done have mostly been Roma's...bought 4 cases of them from the farmer's market last year and didn't even ask what actual variety they were, LOL. We have our faves we use for fresh...some for slicing and some for wee salad types. I'm not even totally sold on it being technically a 'paste' tomato...just something with more meat and less juice. Last year, I did strain a few and save the juice to which we added other veggies, and kept the pulpier stuff for sauce, but this year I'm hoping to really reduce quite a bit to make a thicker, "meatier" sauce and can it so I don't have to cook my spaghetti sauce forever to thicken it. I prefer also to have slightly thicker plain tomatoes canned so my soups and chile isn't quite so watery.

It makes my head spin to see all the different kinds of tomatoes! I've probably tasted about 20 different kinds and while I like some better than others, I've not yet had any I didn't like at all. I do need to narrow it down though because our space is limited and we can only eat so many fresh; most will be for canning. I intend to grow about 10 times more edible plants this year than last so space is really going to be at a premium and I'll have to limit stuff to things we really like...with just a few of things that can't be preserved and lots of the things I can can, dry, freeze, or cold store.

 

[Jared77]

We did the roasted veggies for salsa last year, and we could tell the difference. We filled the pan with tomatoes, some onion, whole garlic cloves, and hot peppers to make our salsa with. I'm trying to remember but I think we quartered the tomatoes to clean them up a bit but I'm not 100% sure. I know we set the oven broiler to get a good charring on them. We used a disposable pan so it was a lot easier to clean up too.

Im not at home so I don't have the recipe in front of me but I can tell you it made a difference for the better. I like that smokey tomato with the sweet carmalized onions and roasted garlic flavors together. to me it really elevated our salsa. But then we also used 4 or 5 different kinds of tomatoes too so I'm sure that didn't hurt things either.

I've thought of trying this with my sauce tomatoes too, roasting them and then cooking them down to try to get some of that smokey flavor infused into the sauce. But we were so busy last year making salsa and everything else we just didn't get to it. I cheated and used the premix sauce mix to can with and it was alright. It was really nothing special but it beat not having any, or wasting tomatoes.

edited to add Now I'm over a roasted black tomato sauce. Why do I let my brain wander like this?!?!

 

[baymule]

I am trying Myona this year, among several others. But Myona is supposed to be a good paste, fresh or dehydrate tomato. We'll see. I have 12 plants!

http://www.bountifulgardens.org/searchprods.asp

 

[897tgigvib]

It's a My own'a tomato. Filla the bokasa.

 

[April Manier]

I have done Roma's the last few years and I love the flavor, but I supplement with branywines,

This year I switched to Amish Paste tomatoes, Howard German, and Golden sunrise. All of these are supposed to be meatier.

San Marzanos are a good tomato they really hold well, have resistance to blossom end rot (which effects the Roma) and are good sized. This being said, I just didn't find the flavor there!

Hopefully my mix will do well.

 

[journey11]

Roasted salsa...

The thing I saw about roasting tomato sauce was a little different in that it was slow roasted in the oven until the water content reduced. Can't remember exactly...I'll have to look it up, but it was a temperature, not the broiler. Then you put it through the food strainer to remove the peels and seeds.

 

[bj taylor]

one of my celebrities accidentally got 'topped'. so, i'm short a tomato plant. i think i'll give that porter a try. my bed is ready, my tomatoes are sitting in their little pots - awaiting transplant into the grown up world. here in north central Tx, we should be finished w/freezing weather real soon.

 

[Jared77]

The thing I saw about roasting tomato sauce was a little different in that it was slow roasted in the oven until the water content reduced. Can't remember exactly...I'll have to look it up, but it was a temperature, not the broiler. Then you put it through the food strainer to remove the peels and seeds.

Interesting. I would think you'd lose some of the roasted flavor with peeling it by giving up that good charred skin. Did the recipe say to roast them whole or cut say into quarters or halves? I also saw a recipe where you'd brush them with olive oil and grill the seeded halves till they were good and charred then toss into a food processor with a rough chop and add your other ingredients.

BJ thats really cool that your planting soon! Here in Michigan I'm still watching the snow gently fall.

 

[seedcrazy]

I had paste tomatoes coming out my ears last year, I did Romeo Roma, Worley Red (they are HUGE and you can even slice those and they are delicious but didn't produce a lot of them because my neighbor brought in a huge bush which blocked the sun), Amish Paste and just a Roma that someone shared with me. JOURNEY - this year I'm excited because I have Costoluto Genovese someone shared, Worley Red, Jersey Giant, Amish Paste, Romeo Roma, Beefsteak, brandywine, hmmm can't remember all, I'm trying 2 of each seed. I had so many paste tomatoes last year I split them in half, dug our the jelly/seeds laid them on their backs, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled fresh garlic, oregano, basil, whatever I had in the house and roasted them. Then I put them in ziplock baggies and have been using them all winter. WOW is the taste AWESOME. Oven dried tomatoes instead of sun dried. LOL