like being told you shouldn\u2019t rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher<\/a>, I just wanted to ignore the evidence and do what makes sense to me. So I did another test.<\/p>\ndouble quotation markThe brand of tinned tomatoes you buy has very little influence on a sauce<\/p>\n
I bought several varieties of Mutti \u2013 diced, whole, San Marzano and cherry tomatoes \u2013 to test how they compared to the chopped or diced variety we\u2019d used in the first taste test. I also threw in a brand we\u2019d scored poorly as another point of comparison. I cooked them the same way and gave them to five people to test. The results were unextraordinary. None of the seven samples was markedly superior, and none were terrible. The test only affirmed what I was already struggling to come to terms with: the brand of tinned tomatoes you buy has very little influence on a sauce.<\/p>\n
If you want to make a better spag bol, concentrate on seasoning and cook times. One reviewer, who has been to more taste tests than anyone bar me, summed this up perfectly. Referring to a sample that received only 5\/10 (also one of the cheapest products on the market), she wrote only: \u201cIt\u2019s a tomato. I\u2019d eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For that reason, I\u2019ve excluded the usual \u201cbest overall\u201d and \u201cbest value\u201d categories from the taste test and have instead written notes \u2013 minus the scores \u2013 to help guide you through the options and some tinned tomato myths. If you\u2019re curious about the scores, see the table below \u2013 but I think you should ignore them.<\/p>\n
\u2018In terms of flavour, I see no reason to pick whole tomatoes over chopped or vice versa.\u2019 Photograph: James Gourley\/The GuardianTinned tomatoes: the overall findings<\/p>\n
There are differences between the samples, mainly the level of acidity (many have citric acid added for preservation), the ripeness of the tomatoes and how they\u2019re cut. But the margins of those differences are small, except in extreme cases, which I\u2019ve covered below. Other factors, such as sweetness and aroma, are surprisingly consistent. You can make a judgment about the field though, and my instinct is, despite what almost every label says, these cans aren\u2019t filled with nature\u2019s finest. If we\u2019re paying $2 a can, imagine what the canning factories pay for their tomatoes.<\/p>\n
Italian v Australian tomatoes<\/p>\n
Remano Australian Diced Tomatoes<\/p>\n
Every tin we tried houses Italian or Australian tomatoes. Overall, there was no meaningful difference in quality between the two, but there was a peculiar difference in flavour. The Australian tins, particularly Remano, SPC and Ardmona, were fruitier. That doesn\u2019t mean sweeter. Imagine drinking some generic, vaguely tropical fruit juice that\u2019s had all the sugar sapped out of it \u2013 kind of like that.<\/p>\n
Cheap v expensive<\/p>\n
Black & Gold Chopped Tomatoes<\/p>\n
There seems to be little relationship between price and flavour. Some of the cheaper brands contained some underripe chunks of tomato (you can tell by the orange or yellow colour) and a greater proportion of skins. Black & Gold and Coles Simply Chopped Tomatoes \u2013 both 95c per 400g tin \u2013 were particularly bad offenders. Others, like Coles Italian, are a bit thin, as if they\u2019ve been watered down. But some mid-range brands like Leggo\u2019s had similar issues.<\/p>\n
Chopped v whole tomatoes<\/p>\n
Harris Farm Australian Diced Tomatoes<\/p>\n
Trying it straight from the tin, I thought the whole tomato samples were slightly richer, but when the samples were cooked, the difference was barely perceptible. In terms of flavour, I see no reason to pick whole tomatoes over chopped or vice versa. Texture is a different matter. How the tomatoes are chopped will influence how your sauce thickens. Some tins of chopped tomatoes also contain a firming agent, which helps tomato chunks retain their shape (Harris Farm\u2019s home brand and Remano Australian both use calcium chloride). If you\u2019re cooking a quick sauce, the chunks won\u2019t break down as much as other tins.<\/p>\n
Tinned cherry tomatoes<\/p>\n
Mutti Cherry Tomatoes Photograph: Woolworths<\/p>\n
After tasting Mutti\u2019s cherry tomato tin against the rest of their range, I found no significant difference in sweetness or intensity of flavour. The nutrition panel suggests the same \u2013 the products have very similar natural sugar levels, as do cherry tomato tins from other brands. It may be different if the tins were 100% cherries but, like pretty much every tinned tomato product, about 40% of the can is a generic tomato juice. The big difference is texture. Whole cherry tomatoes make a thicker sauce, which is extremely useful for any reduction, but there\u2019s a compromise \u2013 the skins add a fibrous texture. If you want to make a luscious sauce quickly, this is a good option, you just have to pay 40c extra for it.<\/p>\n
San Marzano tomatoes<\/p>\n
Agrigenus Pomodoro San Marzano Dell\u2019Agro Sarnese Nocerino DOP<\/p>\n
San Marzano are the Birkin handbag of the vegetable world, a brand name that projects exclusivity, quality and exorbitance. I tested two tins containing the famous southern Italian tomato, Mutti and Agrigenus, both of which come with a DOP (protected designation of origin) label, assuring us that these are real San Marzanos grown in southern Italy. For that certification, you have to pay more than $4 a can, pretty much twice that of any other tin. At that price, these need to be special, and that is not what we found. None of the tasters voted a San Marzano tin the best. Agrigenus received generous scores and a lot of comments about complexity, but it was also described as earthy and woody, \u201clike it\u2019s been cooked with a toothpick in it\u201d. Mutti\u2019s version performed no better than the brand\u2019s regular tinned tomatoes.<\/p>\n
Organic v non-organic<\/p>\n
Macro Organic Diced Italian Tomatoes<\/p>\n
In general, the organic brands were more distinct, but not in a particularly good or bad way. Do you want a touch more complexity if it also brings a little bitterness or a slight metallic flavour? That\u2019s your choice. Honest to Goodness was probably the most unusual of them, Macro the least.<\/p>\n
Notable products: what I\u2019ll buy<\/p>\n
Villa Rossi Diced Tomatoes, 400g, $1.99 (50c per 100g), available from select grocers.<\/p>\n
The equal highest scorer on the day (along with Macro), simply because it was slightly sweeter than its competitors. The nutrition panel (note nutrition panels aren\u2019t specific to each batch, they\u2019re usually an average of many batches) tells the same story. At 3.9g per 100g, it has the equal highest naturally occurring sugar. That\u2019s enough for me to end my long-term relationship with Mutti. Here on in, I will be buying this, SPC or whatever is on special.<\/p>\n
SPC Diced Tomatoes, 400g, $1.70 (43c per 100g), available at major supermarkets<\/p>\n
The fruitiest of all the oddly fruity Australian tomato brands. It\u2019s very acidic too, which makes a complex, if slightly unusual sauce. I think it\u2019s too bright for any seven-hour sauce with high-umami ambitions but I\u2019m keen to use it for literally any other tomato-based stewed food.<\/p>\n
Notable products: the big brands<\/p>\n
Mutti Polpa Finely Chopped Tomatoes, 400g, $2.30 (58c per 100g), available from major supermarkets<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve included this because I\u2019ve seen how much brand loyalty there is for Mutti online (where did that even come from?). To the loyalists, and to me of the past \u2013 I\u2019m sorry, it simply did not stand out at all. If anything, it\u2019s a bit lacking in sweetness and acidity, making it a bit vegetal and legume-like, as if a few specks of cannellini bean had been left in the tin.<\/p>\n
Photograph: Woolworths<\/p>\n
Annalisa Italian Diced Tomatoes, 400g, $1.50 (38c per 100g), available at major supermarkets<\/p>\n
I wanted to include this as a warning, because it\u2019s a very high-acid option. If I\u2019m making a spag bol, I\u2019m usually adding sugar to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes. I know other people who will add a pinch of bicarb to literally balance the pH level. This is going to make that process a little more difficult \u2013 you\u2019ll need too much bicarb or sugar, which will change the flavour. If you\u2019re making a curry or chilli con carne, it\u2019s not going to matter, a bit more acidity might even be nice.<\/p>\n
Notable products: what I won\u2019t buy<\/p>\n
Cirio Polpa Diced Tomatoes, 400g, $2.30 (58c per 100g), available at select grocers<\/p>\n
Uncooked, this has a very unusual, slightly bitter aftertaste \u2013 like it\u2019s been mixed with some overfermented tomatoes or a few drops of olive brine, which is how it ended up with the lowest score of the day. But when you cook it, that mostly fades. If there\u2019s any brand to avoid, it\u2019s probably this, Leggo\u2019s and the cheap home brands with too many skins mixed in.<\/p>\n
Leggo\u2019s Australian Diced Tomatoes, 400g, $1.80 (45c per 100g), available at major supermarkets<\/p>\n
Like pretty much every can, it\u2019s tasty as a cooked sauce but the texture means I\u2019ll never buy it. It\u2019s watery, and the tomato bits are weirdly fibrous. I\u2019m not just talking about the skins, the tomato bits are also kind of chewy. Odd.<\/p>\n
Ardmona Diced Tomatoes, 400g, $1.80 (45c per 100g), available at major supermarkets<\/p>\n
They say it\u2019s diced but if you diced this loosely, you\u2019d never get a job in a kitchen. The large chunks aren\u2019t a deal breaker but they certainly make it harder to get a consistent sauce, particularly for quick cooks. Like the other Australian tomatoes, this is very fruity, specifically pawpaw-like, which must be among the worst fruit a tomato could aspire to be.<\/p>\n
Australian supermarket tinned tomato taste test<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I go through a lot of tinned tomatoes. The only ingredients more essential to my weekly cooking are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-696843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}