Why does anyone buy that premade?

[wonky]

@NitroPress

Tomato sauce and tomato paste have tons of crap in them.

Like what?

[Labrador_Deceiver]

Tomatoes

[wonky]

@Labrador_Deceiver

Tomatoes

They are a bit freaky, especially if you get a Cherokee Purple or other heirloom type and really LOOK at it.

[jz78817]

@grude

Yea, I enjoy all that kinda stuff. Even if I had the money I’d look forward to mucking around, but I’m not a fanatic.

Restaurants are a whole different bag and I don’t think you can even compare that to stuff from the grocery obviously.

well, realize that not everyone values the same things you do, or to the same extent as you. you tend to come off as very judgmental when you post stuff like this (“WTF why doesn’t everybody do the things I do?”) I might make the dressing myself if I’m making a salad to serve to other people, but if its just for me I’m fine with a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette from a bottle and I don’t really feel any need to justify that to anyone.

and yes, I know that dressing doesn’t have real balsamic vinegar in it. I don’t care so don’t bother pointing it out.

[kiz]

@WhyNot

If you taste it out of the jar, it’s much closer to roasted garlic than fresh garlic. Sometimes that’s okay.

And quite handy if there are household members who don’t love garlic as much as you do

[Proudest_Monkey]

@NitroPress

Tomato sauce and tomato paste have tons of crap in them. Use fresh-canned tomato forms instead of this precooked glop.

@Labrador_Deceiver

Tomatoes

Horrified at what I’d find, I just ran to the cupboard to check my tomato paste for “essence of puppy” or “unpronounceable alphabet melange”. My Trader Joe’s tomato paste lists one ingredient (tomatoes), while my **Whole Foods **tube steps way over the line with two! (tomatoes, salt)

WRT prepped vs. homemade, my line of demarcation is flexible. I can whip up a cake or pan of brownies from scratch, but biscuits and pie crust elude me no matter how I try. My homemade baked beans are yummy and easy (for me), but I can’t serve up cole slaw as good as the one I can buy in the deli.

I do not want to make my own sausage, grind my own wheat into flour, roast coffee beans, churn butter or rummage for clams at low tide. Don’t judge me for taking the easy way out.

[Sateryn76]

@NitroPress

As some have pointed out, there may be a place for things like precut fruit - as an individual serving or snack. I am not sure there’s a valid place for larger quantities obviously intended for several servings.

Most of the above items fall into a category I’ve discerned: people who don’t or won’t cook on a regular basis have likely never learned how; a minimal investment in cookware and you can turn out fresh, tasty marinara-style sauces all day long for a fraction of the cost of bottled. But if you have nothing but junk cookware and one crappy knife, it can be an overwhelming chore to make it fresh. So it’s a lifetime, or some very long stretch, of buying second-rate, overpriced crap food, with every weak justification in the world, instead of investing a few months and something under a hundred dollars in a set of basic cooking skills that will turn out better, cheaper food… often more easily.

I suggest that a year of Home Ec should still be a high school requirement.

Meh. I had Home Ec, and a mother who taught me to cook, and have good knives and such.

I just hate to cook. I’d rather spend my time doing things I enjoy. Food is just fuel to me.

[wonky]

@Proudest_Monkey

Horrified at what I’d find, I just ran to the cupboard to check my tomato paste for “essence of puppy” or “unpronounceable alphabet melange”. My Trader Joe’s tomato paste lists one ingredient (tomatoes), while my **Whole Foods **tube steps way over the line with two! (tomatoes, salt)

I feel a bit faint.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@Proudest_Monkey

Horrified at what I’d find, I just ran to the cupboard to check my tomato paste for “essence of puppy” or “unpronounceable alphabet melange”. My Trader Joe’s tomato paste lists one ingredient (tomatoes), while my **Whole Foods **tube steps way over the line with two! (tomatoes, salt)

There are better brands of most products, yes. Also, the very concentrated cooks-quality tomato paste in a tube is a different product from the canned item.

Check the grocery store brands some time… that is, if you deign to set foot in them.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@jsgoddess

Like what?

Typically, salt, sugar or equivalent, preservatives (usually pretty mild ones), and various “stabilizers” and thickeners.

Note that this does NOT apply to the gourmet/cook’s concentrated tomato paste in a tube - very different product.

[wonky]

@NitroPress

There are better brands of most products, yes. Also, the very concentrated cooks-quality tomato paste in a tube is a different product from the canned item.

Check the grocery store brands some time… that is, if you deign to set foot in them.

So, care to tell us what is in them and thus end the suspense?

[Labrador_Deceiver]

Tomato Pastes:

Kroger Generic Store Brand: Tomatoes
Heinz Tomato Paste: Tomatoes
Contadina (by Del Monte): Tomatoes
Hunts: Tomatoes, Salt, spices, citric acid, natural flavors.
Red Gold: tomatoes, citric acid
Iberia: Tomatoes
Muir Glen: tomatoes, citric acid

[tim-n-va]

So really just another classic SD sneak brag thread…

[jz78817]

@tim-n-va

So really just another classic SD sneak brag thread…

that’s practically all NitroPress has done since he showed up here.

[wonky]

@NitroPress

Typically, salt, sugar or equivalent, preservatives (usually pretty mild ones), and various “stabilizers” and thickeners.

Note that this does NOT apply to the gourmet/cook’s concentrated tomato paste in a tube - very different product.

So, can you name a brand that has all these things? Because I’m not seeing it in Labrador Deceiver’s list.

I need to know if tomato paste is the evil or the most evil.

[Ferret_Herder]

@Labrador_Deceiver

Tomato Pastes:

Kroger Generic Store Brand: Tomatoes
Heinz Tomato Paste: Tomatoes
Contadina (by Del Monte): Tomatoes
Hunts: Tomatoes, Salt, spices, citric acid, natural flavors.
Red Gold: tomatoes, citric acid
Iberia: Tomatoes
Muir Glen: tomatoes, citric acid

What, no iodine?

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@Labrador_Deceiver

Tomato Pastes:
Kroger Generic Store Brand: Tomatoes
Heinz Tomato Paste: Tomatoes
Contadina (by Del Monte): Tomatoes
Hunts: Tomatoes, Salt, spices, citric acid, natural flavors.
Red Gold: tomatoes, citric acid
Iberia: Tomatoes
Muir Glen: tomatoes, citric acid

You’re right, I’m wrong… because my data is out of date. It looks as if most or all makers have returned to a tomato-only recipe in the move to “organic” and “natural” everything, which is both good and startling.

I stopped using both product 5-6 years ago when all commercial brands I could find did indeed contain useless and yucky additives, most notably sugar/HFCS.

Glad to be shown wrong on this.

ETA: I note a huge and panicky move to get HFCS out of ketchup in the last year or so; I suspect something like that is the cause of the change.

[Proudest_Monkey]

@NitroPress

There are better brands of most products, yes. Also, the very concentrated cooks-quality tomato paste in a tube is a different product from the canned item.

Check the grocery store brands some time… that is, if you deign to set foot in them.

Wow. I don’t want to be too defensive, but “deign.” Really?

I shop cheap whenever I can. Hell, a trip to the Dollar Tree can make my day! I even copped to using frozen Pillsbury (or worse–store brand) biscuits.

[WhyNot]

@NitroPress

But you don’t have to start with the horror that is canned tomato sauce (or worse, paste) - you are getting precooked glop with buckets of food-garbage thrown in, most notably our old friend HFCS.

Stock up instead on crushed tomatoes - they are the closest you can get to unprocessed and still be convenient. My basic spaghetti sauce uses one large can of crushed, one small can of diced (for some texture) - and anything else is because I put it there, not because Del Monte thinks I need nine kinds of crap in my food.

Aldi’s (Happy Harvest) tomato paste contains: tomato pulp

Just in case you’re not feeling picked on quite enough yet, their crushed tomatoes* contain:

diced tomatoes in juice (tomatoes, tomato juice, calcium chloride, citric acid), tomato puree (water, concentrated crushed tomatoes), salt

*which I can’t find a current label online for, but I have a can in my hand at the moment

[pulykamell]

@NitroPress

You’re right, I’m wrong… because my data is out of date. It looks as if most or all makers have returned to a tomato-only recipe in the move to “organic” and “natural” everything, which is both good and startling.

I don’t think that’s right. I don’t recall tomato paste ever having much more than tomatoes and perhaps citric acid in them. I really don’t think this is new.