What previous assertion was incorrect, other than this one?
I was talking about the ones you’ve been making in this thread. You said unsupported stuff about tomato sauce and paste, got called on it, backtracked, and are now saying unsupported stuff about tomato sauce, paste, and ketchup. I’m just saying that it’s not enough to say it.
Of course, it doesn’t really matter either, and is most certainly off-topic for this thread.
While none of these are authoritative, all seem sincere and all parallel my own detailed recollections of finding sugar in both tomato sauce and paste, to the point where I gave up trying to find a reasonably-priced sugarless brand in favor of fresher packs. Some of these refer to pan-ready spaghetti sauce rather than canned tomato sauce, but as folks in this thread have denied finding sugar in both, I included them.
[ul]
[li] So I’m always baffled when I pick up a jar or can of tomato sauce and it’s loaded with sugars, often high fructose corn syrup.[/li][li] There’s no need to add sugar to tomato sauce because tomatoes are naturally sweet. So why do processors insist? Because instead of using fresh olive oil and vegetables, they’re often making their sauces from cheaper vegetable oils, dehydrated veggies, and other subpar ingredients.[/li][li] If I’m using store bought, I’m super picky because it’s so hard to find a jar that doesn’t contain SUGAR.[/li][li] Tomatoes are full of citric acid, which is comparable to vinegar, and none too pleasing to the taste buds. Especially with the immature variety that’s forced into a jar, sugar is necessary to negate the acid on your tongue.[/li][li] But I am really surprised that none of any packed food manufacture company ever shows any interest in making sugar free tomato sauce for diabetic patient.[/li][li]Tomato sauce has lots of sodium, but if you check the back of the tomato paste can, it usually has very little sodium & more sugar.[/li][/ul]
Many of these are a few years old, which fits what everyone has found now. I also had to skip over quite a few entries for commercial products that emphasized their sugar-freeness. Now, if processors never put sugar in their tomato sauce and paste… why would they make such a big deal about them being sugar-free now?
I’ve already conceded that the situation appears to have changed - that processors have removed what was always an unnecessary ingredient in the four or five years since I last looked - but I resent the rather selective arguments that I just made the whole thing up.
I don’t buy the “sugar was from the tomatoes” argument, either; I can’t recall labeling requirements that, for example, required orange content to be broken down by water, fructose, citric acid etc. “Oranges” or “tomatoes” was sufficient. If sugar is listed, sugar was added.
I backtracked nowhere. There are several points where people selectively quoted me and drew their own conclusions. And my prior post says pretty much everything I think needs saying; I don’t have time or interest in arguing with people that say because there is no sugar in the current products, it was never there and I’m wrong to say it was.
I made an honest error based on valid, but outdated data. I’ve conceded it. I’m done.
[quote=“NitroPress, post:183, topic:652162”]
[li] So I’m always baffled when I pick up a jar or can of tomato sauce and it’s loaded with sugars, often high fructose corn syrup.[/li][/quote]
That talks mostly about tomato sauces at restaurants. I don’t see the author mentioning any ingredients of commercial tomato sauces and pastes–like I have.
That’s talking about sugar in spaghetti sauce. I’m addressing your claim on tomato paste. Yes, most jarred pasta sauces have added sugar. Nobody is contradicting that, so far as I can tell.
And again, pasta sauces, not tomato sauce or tomato paste. Read the link and the products they are comparing: #1 Barilla Traditional Marinara , #2 Prego Traditional , #3 Amy’s Family Marinara Pasta Sauce.
I’m not sure why you’re linking to that. That just says jarred tomatoes are particularly acidic, not that sugar is added to jarred tomatoes.
Once again, no clue why you’re linking to that. Note that the “sugar free” recipes that follow that post have tomato paste in them. That’s the notion I’m trying to disabuse you of, that tomato paste at any time was loaded with sugar.
This is awesome. Really awesome. You leave out the very next sentence:
“Tomatoes have natural sugar, so that makes sense.”
I wanted to give you the benefit of a doubt…I really did. But you are utterly full of shit.
Damn, puly. I can’t believe all that valid data from Redbook didn’t convince you.
You lost me at blender
This is a terrible way to refer to a child.
There’s 2 things to keep in mind here.
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Rock-hard green tomatoes will eventually ripen on their own if picked past a certain pretty early point.
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Even non-optimal, mostly-ripe commercial tomatoes are virtually indistinguishable from vine-ripened, home grown ones once they’re cooked and slow-simmered with herbs and spices. This is because most of the advantages of ripening - i.e. softness and a lot of the aroma compounds are negated by long cooking.
Believe me, I’ve tried it- the super-cheapo sale price romas at the Mexican grocery made just as good sauce as the super-duper, vine ripened hybrids and heirlooms I’ve grown in my garden, much to my dismay.
So with that in mind, it makes perfect sense for the commercial growers to pick them green when they’re pretty durable and ripen them under controlled condition when they want them ripened.
Wow. Not my experience at all. The Mexican romas I get just make a weird, vaguely orange-colored sauce that tastes nothing like tomatoes, no matter how much I try to concentrate it down. Before I knew better, I just thought I was getting bad recipes. But nope. It was the tomatoes. Tomatoes + garlic + olive oil makes a fantastic sauce, but the tomatoes are of utmost importance. After many failures, I will only do them with garden tomatoes or canned tomatoes.
I wish I could make good sauce from those cheapie tomatoes. Really wish I could.
Who the hell buys orange juice? Just buy some oranges and squeeze them you lazy SOB!
pulykamell, you’re in Cafe Society, not GD or the Pit. Dial it back, pls.
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
they’ll redden, not ripen. “Ripening” means the sugar content of the fruit (among other things) is approaching its peak. Pulling a rock hard green tomato and gassing it with ethylene isn’t causing it to ripen.
Sorry, I was just irritated at all the nonsense and non-factual information in this thread concerning the ingredients of tomato paste, both currently and historically.
Nobody is talking about gassing them. Tomatoes will absolutely ripen after picked.
I begin to think there should probably be a moratorium on the word “sugar” in this thread, because the statements that involve it are trending false.
Yep- they take a while, but they do most definitely ripen. And I wasn’t meaning that they’d redden them up for sale with ethylene, but rather that they’d control the temperature and climate (and ethylene levels) so that they can keep them unripe if they don’t plan on canning them when they’d normally ripen.
Ohh yea you know my wife was always like what is this salsa you’re always reminiscing about, then she looked up a recipe and said REALLY? Damn I could make this in five minutes, she then proceeded to use a blender and made some REALLY good salsa!
Couldn’t convince her to do it again.:mad:
You can buy a loose potato for 99 cents a lb at the supermarket–so it would cost you about 50 cents for a 1/2 pound potato. I do this all the time.
Pro tip - crock pot. Throw them beans in and they’ll be fantastic by dinner time. Freeze the rest.
Well, I had an odd dream this morning about a shadowy conspiracy scrambling people’s senses of time and space with fake sweetener… 
and was inspired to check the ingredients list on the tomato sauce in my cupboard, based on NitroPress’ remarks about HFCS in tomato sauce back on page 1 of this thread.
I hadn’t been following the ongoing discussion and realized that the sugar-tomato sauce thing had been done to death by this point. But anyway: Three different brands of sauce, no HFCS, no sugar. All very ordinary ingredients lists, except for the citric acid maybe.
The next time I’m in Fortino’s, I’m going to have to check the list on the No-name brand sauce, because I think they actually do include sugar. And then I’m going to stock up on a few cans either way, because it’s a nice sauce and it’s cheap.