# Who DOES like tomatoes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847 "2016-04-22T23:57:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/41 "2016-04-24T20:31:07Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I like every kind of tomatoes except the fresh ones. Preach it, brother. I think for me, it’s because they’re fairly intensely flavored and for whatever reason tend to overwhelm whatever else I’m eating them with. And I don’t really much like the raw ones to begin with. So a hamburger with a big slice of tomato just ends up tasting like a tomato burger. (same thing if the onions are too large). I love things like salsa, pasta sauce, etc… and even sun-dried tomatoes. But not fresh ones. Oddly enough, I’m fairly proficient at growing them in our garden. I just don’t like them fresh, that’s all. My wife sure does though. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/42 "2016-04-24T21:44:32Z")
Crazy for 'em all, but mostly the ones from my garden. I grow only heirlooms from true seed. I can at least 50 quarts for just me, because I’ll use them in sauces and chili. I never, ever freeze or refrigerate them. There are few things more ambrosial than a Caprese salad made from fresh tomatoes and basil warm from the garden, a local artisan Buffalo mozzarella, homemade French bread and a drizzle of excellent olive oil. Oh, dear. I’ve swooned! ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/43 "2016-04-25T01:03:20Z")
I love tomatoes, but mostly fresh, really ripe ones I grow in my own garden. Of the supermarket tomatoes, only the small ones (cherry, grape, Campari etc) are acceptable. Even at the farmer’s market, I have been scammed with lousy tasting tomatoes! One thing that almost always improves a good fresh tomato is peeling it. I peel mine by impaling the tomato on a fork and briefly dipping it in boiling water ( 5 seconds or less) then stripping the peel. Canned tomatoes are generally of acceptable quality, at least the major brands I have tried. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/44 "2016-04-25T03:13:02Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I never, ever freeze or refrigerate them. I must be in the minority… I will gladly eat one fresh off of the vine in 85 degree temperatures, but I’m also fine with one from the fridge. Frozen… probably not. > [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > One thing that almost always improves a good fresh tomato is peeling it. I peel mine by impaling the tomato on a fork and briefly dipping it in boiling water ( 5 seconds or less) then stripping the peel. i actually like the skin from several varieties, but if you want to peel them cut a small X in the bottom before you dip them in the boiling water. You will peel them in no time flat. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/45 "2016-04-25T03:29:15Z")
Oh man, y’all, I do freeze grape and cherry tomatoes. keep em frozen in my insulated lunch box and on a hot summer afternoon working my ass off, take a little break, have a delicious frozen tomato, yummy and refreshing at the same time. btw **Spud** nice username/post combo ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/46 "2016-04-25T03:29:59Z")
As tight as my food budget is, Campari tomatoes must be purchased every week because they’re they only kind I can find that taste nearly as good as homegrown. I grew up growing tomatoes (usually those big juicy beefsteak varieties) every year but there’s something about where I live now that kills the fruit on the vine. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/47 "2016-04-25T03:46:24Z")
I love tomatoes. My favorite combination on sandwiches is a slice of tomato with a few leaves of basil. For a snack or a side, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers together with a sprinkling of black pepper and maybe a dash of salt. Tomato soup, pizza sauce, pasta sauce…tomatoes everywhere. Works for me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/48 "2016-04-25T15:35:42Z")
I love tomatoes! Both on sandwiches and just by themselves. ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/49 "2016-04-25T15:53:21Z")
Love tomatoes - my wife plants a huge garden every year and we use/eat them all summer. We’ll make sauce and freeze it so that we have fresh sauce in the winter. Use on sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, fresh salsas and with fresh cucumbers too. My favorite is to pick one fresh, slice it open into 4-5 thick “disc” shaped pieces, then coat with a little salt, Mrs Dash Garlic & Herb, and then a light dust of chili powder. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/50 "2016-04-25T16:22:21Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Love tomatoes, but is there any vegetable sold in grocery stores that is as tasteless? I can’t think of any that differ as much form “the real thing” as supermarket tomatoes. If all I ever had was those, I’d probably think I didn’t like them. I don’t know what supermarket(s) you patronize, but my local ones carry (in addition to good-tasting cherry and grape tomatoes) a number of small to large-fruited ones including “heirloom” types and imports (including so-called black tomatoes) that are considerably better than the classic picked-green-and-gassed tough-skinned tomatoes whose main virtue is that they can be transported long distances without bruising. In olden times when I was growing up, a big thing in summer was the availability of Jersey tomatoes (large beefsteak types) that were a major cut above out-of-season tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/51 "2016-04-25T17:13:51Z")
Relevant King of the Hill clip. Hank shops at a hippie food co-op: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/OBLqzGrq8T0/hqdefault.jpg "King Hill Tomato") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBLqzGrq8T0) ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/52 "2016-04-25T18:43:18Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I like every kind of tomatoes except the fresh ones. > > Before you tell me I need to try one from your garden, been there and done that, with every conceivable variety, freshness date, and multiple soil types. I’ve tried so hard to like the taste of fresh tomatoes, because I love them every other way. > > But fresh just has an off-putting taste. > > I’ll celebrate consuming them sun-dried, roasted, juiced, marinated in vinegar or citrus juice, stewed, as a paste, sauce, steamed, turned into jam or jelly, grilled, fried, as a salsa (as long as it’s had time to blend with the other ingredients), etc. etc. etc. > > Love love love tomatoes. > > Except the fresh ones. ☹ Me, too. I’d like to enjoy fresh tomatoes, but I can’t. My hypothesis is there’s a gene some people have for a taste receptor that interacts with a specific compound in fresh tomatoes that cooking or other processing mitigates. Not unlike cilantro effect some people have. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/53 "2016-04-26T14:24:13Z")
In 9th grade, our Natural Sciences class included studying species classification, the origins of different species and stuff like that. It being 9th grade, there was always a general background of noise: those desks which didn’t quite sit right, books opening, books closing, pencils being moved around… The teacher was telling us plants which came from America and listed the tomato. And suddenly her voice was the only sound in the room, she was so surprised that she stopped. One of my classmates asked “but, but, but… how did people here cook, before?” We couldn’t conceive not liking tomato any more than we could conceive cooking without it. I mean, yeah, you can do it, but try doing it for a whole week. No tomato sauce, no tomato in your salad? Yeah right. In Spain it’s treated as a sort of miracle ingredient, there are some things a dash of tomato or its sauce can’t solve but they’re rare. My coworker has discovered _pamtomaca con jamón_, aka _pà amb tomàquet amb pernil_, aka a slice of serrano over a piece of bread on which over-ripe tomato has been squished. He was telling us about it and we were joking that it was a good thing we were indoors, because he was about to go into ecstatic levitation. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/54 "2016-04-26T15:05:21Z")
Even though I hated tomatoes as a kid and wouldn’t even eat marinara sauce, I eventually saw the error of my ways and now I love the little (or big) globes of goodness. Fresh off the vine is best, rinsed off with the hose and eaten like an apple. Oh yum! ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/55 "2016-04-26T15:56:59Z")
Love them, gobble gobble. If placed in a fruit bowl with apples, pears, oranges, etc, then I’ll grab the tomato first. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/56 "2016-04-30T02:56:08Z")
I’m pretty neutral on the taste. But they do make sandwiches look pretty, so I generally will ask for them when the person at the counter asks what toppings I would like. And I really wasn’t much of a fan when I was younger, so I feel a certain pride when I eat a tomato because it reminds me of all the effort I’ve put into expanding my palate over the years. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847/57 "2016-04-30T04:53:24Z")
Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes Only two things that money can’t buy That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes One of my grocery stores here in Austin has a tomato section roughly four by ten feet. Heaven. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-does-like-tomatoes/752847.md?page=2)