ok guys. . . i'm maybe getting in over my head here I plan on doing a variety of canning for my tomato plants this year. I want to make homemade salsa, lots of diced & stewed tomatoes, and eventually even some tomato sauce & spaghetti sauce.

My question is this. . . . paste vs. slice tomatoes.

Whats the pro's and cons of the different varieties. . and if i'm right, arent the big beef, steak etc. tomatoes slicing? And romas are paste toms?

Thx!!

Slicing tomatoes have a lot of juice in them and will require a longer cooking time to reduce the excess liquid. Paste tomatoes will not have the excess liquid, so will cook quicker. Personally, I think that slicing tomatoes make a mushy salsa (due to the extra cook time and heat) but it might just all be in my head!! And, yes, roma are paste and big beefsteak are slicing tomatoes. Plum tomatoes are another popular paste variety. The method I use is if the tomato is round like a ball, it's probably a slicing tomato and if the tomato is long and skinny it's paste. I don't know if that holds true for all 'maters, but it seems to work for most of them! Hope this helps!

Sarah

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Sarah - Zone 5b/6

My experience with round and oblong is similar to Sarah's.
I do make salsa with any and all tomatoes I grow, though. It makes for interesting flavor variation. I don't cook my salsa to thicken it, just long enough to comply with the sterilization requirements. For salsa, the better the tomato tastes, the better the salsa, but my salsa has some clear liquid to it. (But Yummy!)
For sauce, many chef's say to leave the seeds in, many Italian cooks evidently strain them out. I'm with leaving them in for a more spectacular flavor. As for skins, you can blanch the tomato in boiling water or grill them or flash fry in olive oil, then peel. But experiment with leaving skins on. For fresh sauce, where the tomatoes remain a bit chunky, I leave skins on mostly.
Oh, one more thing, few true "paste" tomatoes, like romas, have the full flavor that some of the slicers have, but they're fine for cooking down into sauce.

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Dave
Even my growlights are getting restless!

for most recipes you take the skins off...which makes sense since sometimes the skin can be very thick and tough.

and yes, i think oblong fruits are usually used for paste and the round ones for slicing. altho either can be used for gravy (sauce) the roma or plum varieties are a bit sweeter tasting than most of the 'slicer' varieties.

i always take the seeds out when making gravy - they can make the sauce bitter. they also add more acid.

Danno, I think the methods are as numerous as the number of cooks. I've never known anyone who tossed out the juice, though. Even the clear liquid has lots of flavor, but it has to be boiled or simmered to thicken. And, confusing though it is, "gravy" can mean at least 2 things. Evidently, some southerners make actual gravy with tomatoes (not in Oklahoma, as far as I know.) Some Italians and others call spaghetti sauce "gravy." Play around with different ways of using tomatoes. There's no bad way, as far as I'm concerned. Some cookbooks call for using the seeds, some for straining them out. I find that they disappear in long-cooking sauces and add flavor, but I used to strain them out based on recipes I'd read. Oh, and as to pureeing (sp?) before you cook, I gather it's more common to puree AFTER cooking, not sure here, but I rarely puree at all. Crushing as you cook and stir works well, and a little texture is interesting.

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Dave
Even my growlights are getting restless!

get the ball blue book or go to library and check out a book on growing and canning tomoatoes. I think the ball blue book tells you yield of bushes and number of jars needed etc.

I have a food sieve which can strain out junk off cooked stuff like tomato and apples.

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Mrs.Spud: Idaho Mom

There is a lot to be said for peeling tomatoes, although I don't do it routinely. A truly great spaghetti sauce would be best with peeled tomatoes, but a fresh sauce can be made with skins on, in MHO, and I love chunky salsa, skins and all. For good consistency, blanch 'em, broil 'em, grill them or whatever, and they'll peel easily...fire roasted on the grill will add flavor, leave a few bits of blackened skin on. You can also fire roast your onions and peppers for some really great flavor.

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Dave
Even my growlights are getting restless!

Last year we bought a juicer, takes out seed and skin in seconds.
ranger