I was in the supermarket tonight, and noticed cans of stewed tomatoes. There were plenty of other kinds of canned tomatoes on the supermarket shelves: diced, whole, and so on. And then there were cans of “stewed tomatoes.” I had a flashback to when my Mom and Dad loved them with dinner, and us kids just looked at the lumpy red pile on our plates, and said “Yuck.” And they were indeed yucky.
My questions: just what are “stewed tomatoes”? Must you eat them plain (well, heated), as Mom and Dad did? Are they useful in recipes? What makes them different from the other canned tomatoes that I might use in a recipe? Just what are they?
Not true. Anything that has been canned has been cooked. Stewed tomatoes have probably been cooked more along side other added flavors but that doesn’t mean regular canned tomatoes have not been cooked.
Primarily, “stewed” is just marketing. Depending on added flavors, they can be used interchangeably with regular canned.
Stewed tomatoes are intentionally cooked prior to canning, while other styles of canned tomatoes aren’t cooked any more than necessary in order for the canning process to be successful, which may be something like 15 minutes in a 175 degree water bath.
That’s enough to kill any bacteria, but not hot enough or long enough to seriously cook a tomato. It’ll be different than raw, but not “cooked”, per-se, as temps above about 180 and some time are required to break down pectins and cell walls in vegetables to make them soften.
So there’s a distinct difference in taste and texture between the two- I wouldn’t call them interchangeable.
I love them as well. If you want to take a bit of the bitterness out of the tomato you can add a touch of sugar to the tomatoes. The mixture of flavors is wonderful. Of course, adding sugar defeats the purpose if you are eating vegetables as part of a healthy diet.
Stewed tomatoes have way more flavor than other canned tomatoes. I use them in chili & all italian dishes. I wish they sold diced stewed tomatoes because usually I have to cut them up into bite sized pieces for my recipes—but they taste soooo much better than regular diced tomatoes, so it’s worth it.
Oh, for sure. But I’m also sure that Hunts/Contadina/Red Gold, et al. don’t make their cans spend 45 minutes in a water bath. They’re almost certainly pressure canning at something like 240 degrees.
Ultimately, what it boils down to is that stewed tomatoes are much more cooked than the other sorts of canned tomatoes. They also usually have other vegetables and flavorings incorporated- celery, garlic, etc…
So for most uses, they’re an imperfect substitute for diced/whole canned tomatoes, and vice-versa.
I was just going to ask whether or not stewed tomatoes were preferred over regular ol’ canned whole tomatoes for things like making salsa or Italian-cuisine red sauces.
It might depend on how much control over spices and flavorings the cook prefers to exercise, and in what manner.
A teaspoon of sugar in a 15 oz. can of tomatoes surely can’t derail any ‘healthy diet’, can it??? I imagine tomatoes have natural sugar, and many fruits and vegetables. Hell, if I was on a veg diet giving up sweets and anything good, a touch of sugar in the f’ing stewed tomatoes would be low on my list of worries about a ‘healthy diet’.
I don’t know the real difference. If I buy them it’s because I’m making tomato soup. Food process them with garlic and onion and heat thourougly. Good stuff. I can my own tomatoes so it’s rare that I buy any tomato product short of catsup. This year I’m gonna make my own catsup, if my tomatoes are prolific. Crossed fingers.
During the summer and fall months, stewed tomatoes and zucchini make a very adaptable side dish for just about any protein. Diced go in pasta sauce. Crushed tomatoes are good when making Sloppy Joes and the like.