Tomatoes these days seem to be much firmer (and less flavoursome) than they were say 20 or 30 years ago. This may be from breeding to make them more suitable for travel, or because they are picked early - I don’t know and welcome information on this.
But my own personal theory is that the firmness was a breeding goal, so that the tomatoes would be easier to cut, as many people’s kitchen knives are not so sharp.
Is there any truth to this theory? Thanks!
While I have no first hand knowledge of this, I believe tomatoes are picked while still green and firm. They are designed to be able to withstand a 13mph impact for shipping; taste is a secondary consideration.
I don’t think anyone thought of breeding firm tomatoes for their ease in cutting with dull knives; but I bet a marketing person will pick up on that idea and use it to justify them.
Does anyone remember the FlavrSaver tomato? Genetically modfied to be both firm for shipping but tasty by the time it got to the store. Flopped like a dying fish.
According to Alton Brown, they’re picked while still green and exposed to a gas ([del]possibly[/del] ethylene) which turns them red. Sadly, it does not actually ripen them.
ETA cite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA7Fkk5eGM0#t=1m15s
they are picked green for shipping.
ethylene gas does ripen tomatoes, tomatoes produce the gas during ripening, tomatoes near one another, on the vine or off, will cause each other to ripen. this technique is used to control off vine ripening in the home; if you want them to ripen put in a paper bag together to concentrate the gas, if you don’t want them to ripen as quickly then spread them out and keep them well ventilated.
My experience is that the skins are tougher making them more robust for travel but harder to cut with a even a moderately sharp knife. My 6" Hoffritz knife never did a great job on tomatoes but my 6" Asian knife (I forget the make) is like a razor.
That’s why I primarly buy my tomatoes at the farmers market from locally grown farms. Sadly, this only allows me to get good tomatoes about 3-4 months out of the year.
The tomatoes I recall from more than 40 years ago, purchased and homegrown, were tough to cut too. Tomatoes are relatively soft and deform under pressure from a knife. The skin is smooth and slippery as well. But they don’t seem to stop a properly sharpened knife. If you prefer modern stainless steel cutlery, get one with very fine serrations that will saw through the skin. I don’t have problems cutting paper thin tomato slices (only to prove I can, I prefer thicker tomato slices) with a sharp carbon-steel knife.
I don’t think I’d care about the toughness at all if they just tasted better.
I always hone my knife with a steel before I cut a tomato, regardless of whether it’s been purchased from a store or the farmer’s market. Goes through 'em like butter.
My knife set has what’s called a tomato knife. Medium length, serated, and with a fork-like blade point to remove the stem core. I never used it.
Why would they go through the time, effort and money to create a product that addresses a (presumed) need … and then not advertise that their product does so?!?
Modern tomato varieties have been selected for qualities that make them easy to harvest and handle, including physical durability (thick skin and hard flesh), short cropping duration (or in other words, ripening almost all at the same time), uniformity of size, long shelf life, longevity in cold storage etc.
Unfortunately, these attributes are often at odds with the qualities that make a tomato really good to eat - but they must be what we all want, because the market mumble mumble something.
Because it tasted somewhat like a dead fish! They were tasty, but not tomato-tasting. Locally grown, vine ripened are much better. Even frozen and thawed 6 months later, they are still better tasting than the ones from the store.
If you don’t have a sharp knife to cut a tomato, use a serrated knife. A ripe tomato is a wonderful test to see how sharp a knife is.
Why “sadly”? I like the variety of having seasonal produce - it makes you appreciate it more when it arrives. Anyone who’s crazy enough to want a tomato salad in January will know it won’t taste of anything 
I blame the Japanese.
Well, this has convinced me! Ignorance fought, my theory doesn’t seem to hold any water.
Serrated knives do cut tomatoes well, I agree, but in the end whether you cut it well or not it should have some taste.
Thanks all.
Regular store tomatoes suck. The heirloom ones are better, but quite pricey. I saw on some TV show (I think Alton Brown’s Good Eats) that canned tomatoes retain their flavor, and I found out that they do for the most part. It is still not the equal of a good fresh tomatoe, but it is a more than adequate substitute for the fresh from the store.
If you want more flavor, just get Plum Tomatos. The ones at my grocery seem fine. The plums available around here don’t seem to be engineered for handling and marketing issues. They will be smaller than the kind usually bought for slicing.
Am I the only person who peels tomatoes before slicing? They are much, much better peeled and it only takes a few moments.
Homegrown tomatoes are the bomb. The only marginally acceptable tomato in stores has been the grape tomato.
You need the mildy unhinged Kacper M. Postawski at JoyfulTomato.com, whose thin-skinned tomatoes grown using his special techniques cured his mother of cancer, asthma, and sleeping too long. He cuts off all but three leaves from the plant, and for $19.95 you too can find out which three leaves to spare.
A lot of salad crops are now almost exclusively grown using hydroponic techniques these days, particularly tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce. They mature a lot sooner than the same variety grown in soil, and this makes for a product that (IMHO) has less flavour, a less “well-rounded” flavour, and is more watery. This is because some of the chemicals that plants contain naturally take a certain time to produce, and this process simply can’t be hurried up. I’m not certain this gives them a tougher skin, but it certainly neuters the taste.
Modern agrobusinesses tend to fix on the most efficient variety and run with it, so the choice of varieties on the supermarket shelves are much more restricted than they were 20 years ago. Take a list of this big long list of strawberry cultivars, and then be dismayed that 80% of the strawberries sold in the UK are one variety, Elsanta, a good cropper that isn’t easily damaged during transit, has a long shelf life, and tastes of piss-all. I’d guess that thin-skinned tomato varieties have fallen by the wayside in recent years due to transport and shelf-life considerations.