Depends on the tomato. The ones we grow in our garden are meaty and somewhat sweet. I sprinkle salt or pepper on them and they’re delicious fresh.
But everybody has stuff they hate to consume. Some people can’t bear to look at broccoli. The very thought of mayo makes me ill. I think we let ourselves be finicky because we easily can. I’ve had mayo plenty of times, including special-flavored, homemade, etc., etc., and I still hate the stuff. I doubt it’s genetic. I bet mayo would be a godsend if I was starving. Would that just be a case of hunger overcoming my revulsion, and not a case of my taste changing? I’m not sure. I’m thinking that if I forced myself sufficiently, I really could learn to like it. I just don’t wanna make that much effort. I don’t have to. There’s no need. I think that probably holds true for most everybody and the edible they find inedible. And the fact that I probably could like mayo makes me think there’s no mayo-liking gene that I lack.
That said, there’s a whole science of taste about which I am completely and utterly ignorant. Maybe it is all genetic.
This is interesting. I know what you are talking about, but I can’t describe it either, but for me I like them both.
People have told me I’m a bullshitting snob for years when I tell them a perfect salsa has both canned and fresh tomatoes. The canned has a condensed but natural sweetness. The fresh just has ‘tomatoey freshness’ the canned stuff lacks. Since most canned Tomatoes are over-ripe I have always figured it is some volitile compound that disappears as the tomato ages.(And since tomatoes are Nightshade family I have always wondered if it is some low-dose Poison I like )
I’m with An Arky, except I’d go so far as to say that I hate tomato sauce and soup, and don’t care for tomato juice. I don’t dislike all cooked tomato products, and will happily eat bolognese sauce*, etc. However, give me a fresh tomato and I’ll happily munch away. When I was a child, we grew cherry tomatoes and I used to pick them off the vine and eat them by the handful.
*I like tomatoes and some tomato products, but they don’t really like me and I have to keep my consumption to a minimum, lest I suffer the consequences.
Is there an actual genetic basis for this? I’d always suspected that, but hadn’t seen any scientific backing for this. I just googled and got lots of second hand cites “I read that…” or “I heard that…”
Can anyone supply an actual cite for this (not to doubt you, good Doctor)? Also, are there any other foods that have a genetic basis for an aversion? Beyond the noble fresh tomato, of course.
I don’t understand what people mean by the taste of a fresh tomato. To me, fresh tomato is completely tasteless and just has an unpleasant texture. I always remove tomato slices from anything I order because they do nothing but detract from whatever they are on. I accept that I have to deal with them in salsa and similar things but they’re generally chopped up small enough to be less of a problem there anyway.
On the other hand any sort of tomato juice or sauce is good, as is any form of cooked tomato.
I thought I was the only one as I’ve never met anybody else who didn’t like fresh tomato or who didn’t give me odd looks or comments when I removed the slices from hamburgers and sandwiches.
That’d be an under-ripe, picked-too-early tomato found at the grocery store or in a restaurant. This is why I though I hated tomatoes for most of my life.
I have a severe (non-allergic) reaction to fresh tomatoes. My body will expel them as quickly as possible. If I manage to choke them down, they won’t stay down long. I’ve attempted a wide variety of tomatoes, many of them heirlooms, few of them store bought. If I reacted to an unknown food the same way I do to tomatoes, I would assume that it was poisonous/toxic, and wouldn’t attempt to eat it again. On the other hand, I can eat and enjoy most tomato-based foods, except stewed tomatoes and some sauces. Maybe it’s a sensitivity to the night-shade family?
This post really makes me wonder, since “bitter-acid-y” is a contradiction: With normal taste buds, at least, a food simply cannot be both bitter and acidy. Is this maybe a clue to why tomatoes taste bad to some people, that maybe their bitter taste buds are reacting to something other than base?
There is, IIRC, a genetic type called “super taster” who tend to find certain types of foods unpalatible. Quite simply, it’s not a case of you simply not liking such things, your genetic make up is such that you find them pretty much abhorrent. It is possible that such a thing is why many of us don’t like 'maters in their raw, unprocessed form.
I hated them as a kid. I gradually learned to accept them in semi-cooked form in soups and such. As an adult I would never seek them out, but don’t usually remove them from sandwiches, if they happen to be there. I can eat tomatoes in a salad, if they are halfway decently ripe. If not, I usually leave them.
The exception is the type of salad made with fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil drizzled with a vinaigrette. I make that myself sometimes, with the best tomatoes I can find.
So I don’t think it’s genetic. I think some people just learn to like or accept them and some don’t
Another “I like any tomato except raw”. Raw tomato chunks ruin my salad, raw tomato slices ruin my burger. Yet I just made a huge batch of marinara sauce and used it and its variations on almost everything for a week. Tomato juice, catsup, salsa, stewed tomatoes, cooked tomatoes, I like 'em all.
My mom could eat a raw tomato like an apple, just loved them. We always had tomatoes in the garden growing up. Over the years, I’ve come to like many of the foods I didn’t like when I was young, but I just can’t get there with tomatoes.
To me, it’s about the same reaction I have with most wine. Something about the bitter/acidic taste both have just doesn’t work for me. I admit I can choke down wine better than raw tomatoes, but I don’t really like it to the point it’d ever be my drink of choice. Something like a dill pickle, much more acidic and bitter, is just fine with me, so I’m still not quite on the mark.
There was a pit thread a while back about picky eaters, and IIRC tomatoes were the topic of much debate in that thread. As much as I’ve tried, I just don’t like them.
Count me in your camp QtM. I have exactly the same symptoms. I eat all of the other glutamate including foods. I love broccoli and other really hearty things. I also love cooked tomatoes. I don’t like sun-dried ones but that’s mainly a texture thing. I’ll try to find the best way to describe tomato. To me, it is vaguely reminiscent of the way garbage smells. This isn’t rancid garbage, but some-what fresh garbage.
There’s simply something vaguely reminiscent of that. That’s the only way I can describe it. I also like tomato juice. Well, I don’t like it but it’s okay. The texture and mouth feel isn’t the best either.
I have tried on various occasions. I ate a bit the other day while I was sick. I wanted to give it a shot, and for the first time, I didn’t find it abhorrent. So maybe I’ll give it a shot next time. I just feel like an idiot always picking the tomatoes out of my salad. They come in EVERYTHING!
I’m another one in QtM’s camp. Raw tomatoes just taste funky to me. Not necessarily gaggingly horrible, but just not good either.
In a lot of ways, they taste like a tomato plant’s leaves smell to me. Not sweet, not really tangy, just strange.
Some are definitely better/worse than others; I noticed that when I was making sauce out of the ones from my garden, that the beefsteak ones tasted much funkier than the paste ones. (yes, I tasted them in spite of not really liking raw ones)
And, FWIW, I absolutely adore many other glutamate containing foods (parmesan cheese, walnuts, fish sauce, etc…), but just not raw tomatoes.
Cooked ones of just about any stripe are terrific, while the only way I can hack raw ones is in salsa, and even then they have to be fairly small.
A supertaster I’m not. I can detect bitter, no problem. But I enjoy it! I drink tonic water (with quinine) because I like it, I’ve been known to knock back a Moxie with its gentian root flavor from time to time, and tend to slather on the strongly flavored food enhancers like vegemite, soy & fish sauce, and the more pungent of cheeses. Espresso is my default caffeine beverage, consumed on a daily basis.
I need to do an experiment: See how long it takes a slice of fresh tomato to become palatable to me when soaked in lemon or lime juice.
As to the cilantro issue: I don’t find any clear description of a “cilantro tasting gene” in the literature, just references to the trait of finding cilantro to be nasty to have a familial component, implying there may be an inherited basis, among other factors.
I think everyone has these types of tasting quirks, QtM. I absolutely cannot stand the taste of cooked carrots. But I do like raw carrots or carrot juice. Most of us couldn’t handle eating butter by itself, but how freakin’ good is butter on freshly baked bread?
