Tomato Varieties

[deb4o]

I grow alot of toms every year,we eat them fresh and I can salsa.

This year we want to branch out to canning ketcup,BBQ sauce, spagetti sauce and tomato sauce, so here is my question, what variety of plant is the best for these uses?

In the past I've grown, early girls and roma and a few beef steak, there must be plants that are better for sauces.

Thanks for all input

 

[sylvie]

San Marzano is supposed to be the best paste tomato:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marzano_tomato

But for those applications and my hit or miss growing season, I use whatever grows abundantly for me. I have used beefsteak, big boy, cherry, yellow for sauces.
As I posted on another thread-I grill tomatoes which reduces them to paste material instead of cooking down on the stove top for hours. You can also reduce by placing in oven for oven dried tomatoes but don't let them completely dry. The smell of burnt tomato sugars kind of gets to me and that is why I switched to the outdoor BBQ grill.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

one of my favs is Mountain Gold... it makes an ugly, yet lively, sauce. the tomatoes are beautiful yellow, orange... so they cook down to a weird color tho.

 

[GardenWeasel]

I use all my heirloom tomatoes for saucing. Have found a great paste tomato called Polish Linguisa (sp). Marzanos didn't do well for me. Keep in mind I'm in TN so my zone and weather will probably be much different.

 

[sufficientforme]

Roma's are considered a good paste tomato for those things, but really as long as you drain the juices or cook down I would use what I had. I am not sure about the heirloom varieties ( I am going to plant Brandiwine this year and see) For our ketchup and BBQ and pastes this year I am planting the roma's since they are the only ones that did not have issues last year.

 

[deb4o]

So I guess I will just keep planting what grows well here.

Thanks everyone.

 

[hwillm1977]

I am going to plant Brandiwine this year and see

I'm planting Brandywines too... I've got pink, black, yellow and red brandywine, yellow spoon, cherry, red and yellow pear, and giant tree tomatoes...

I've heard Romas are the best for making paste, but I've never actually grown them. I like the different colours of tomatoes, yellow salsa looks beautiful

 

[FarmerDenise]

I've grown the Romas and the San Marzanos, they both were good and fairly well flavored, but I found that my smaller varieties of tomatoes were just as good and possibly more flavorfull, I just let them cook longer if they are too juicy. Or you can drain the juice as someone suggested and can it separately, which I have done as well. The juice comes in handy for soups and gravies etc.
Don't forget to make some chili sauce as well, it is a nice change from all the other ones and makes great sloppy joes

 

[Henrietta23]

I've only grown Romas for cooking.

I tried these for drying one year: 'Principe Borghese' You dry them right on the vine. That was the year we discovered Pugs like tomatoes and had to fence the garden!

I grow Brandywines every year because I just love the flavor. Last year I grew the yellow ones and they might be the best tasting tomatoes ever IMO, though admittedly I only got three with the horrible tomato year we had.

 

[farmerlor]

Romas are a good paste but relatively tasteless when grown here at least. I prefer a mixture of pastes. I grow Roma, Mom's Paste (which for me is the best tasting, biggest paste), San Marzano, Opalka, Polish Linguisa, and Amish Paste. Make no mistake if I'm running through 64 quarts of sauce per day and the Kelloggs or some Caspian Pinks or my beloved black tomatoes start coming in, they're goin' in the pot and that's what gives my tomato sauce so much wonderful, fresh tomato taste. I had one batch come out positively orange because it was about half Kelloggs (a BIG yellow tomato) and another batch was some wicked oxblood color because of all the blacks but oh what wondrous flavor we got!