Fortunately I ended up growing a lot of Cherokee purple tomatoes this year, more than I could eat fresh, so I froze them. Today I thawed them out to make a sauce and it turned out TERRIBLE. Like, so gross. One issue, which could be prevented next time, was that I think the recipe I used assumed the tomatoes would be store bought tomatoes and the seasoning totally clashed with the Cherokee purple flavor. The second issue, which I'm not sure how to fix, was that it was extremely watery. I'm not sure if Cherokee purples are just not good for sauce? If not, what are other ways to use them frozen?
Honestly, even the smell of this sauce is grossing me out. I'm not sure if it's because it's just different than what I'm used to? I know the tomatoes were good because I ate a bunch of them fresh. Linked the recipe below for reference. I followed it exactly except my tomatoes were frozen (and thawed) rather than fresh. I'm not sure where I went wrong here.
https://www.loveandlemons.com/fresh-tomato-sauce/#wprm-recipe-container-59385
by Hairy-Vast-7109
5 Comments
I’ve sauced cherokees before and it’s turned out great. Question: how do the thawed tomatoes taste on their own? Still good?
The proper tomatoes to use for sauce are roma/paste type tomatoes which means they have significantly LESS water content than non-roma/paste types.
Since your sauce turned out watery as a result you’d have to cook it down over time to evaporate the liquid to thicken it.
Tomato sauce recipe seasoning shouldn’t really clash with most tomatoes unless the tomatoes are unusually sweet.
Use the rest of them for things like chili, soups, meatloaf, were it adds flavor and moisture but isn’t the main ingredient.
[https://www.growjoy.com/roma-tomatoes-the-secret-to-the-best-sauces](https://www.growjoy.com/roma-tomatoes-the-secret-to-the-best-sauces)
[https://www.lastingredient.com/fresh-tomato-sauce/](https://www.lastingredient.com/fresh-tomato-sauce/)
There are many ways to skin this cat. When I have too many tomatoes, I roughly chop them, throw them in a pot with a cup of water or so and then let them simmer for a couple hours.
When the toms are broken down I run it all through a food mill and then freeze.
If at any time it’s too watery you can just simmer it longer to reduce it.
If you are going to make sauce out of these type of tomatoes, it is best IMO to process them before you freeze them. There is also a relatively high % of skin and seeds that I remove.
I do two things, which require a tomato mill.
I run about hal them through a tomato mill to separate the skin and seeds and then freeze the pulp/juice.
I take a bunch, quarter them up and then roast them at about 225 in the oven to cook them down and evaporate some liquid. Then I run that through the tomato mill and freeze the paste.
You can do this in batches over the summer. Then i thaw it and make a batch of sauce and can that.
If you don’t have a tomato mill or that many tomatos, you can blanch, peel, and reseed them, lightly cook them until they are soft, and then freeze them. When you cook the sauce you will need to simmer it for a while to thicken it up. Be careful not to burn it.
Sounds like there could have been some freezer burn in the mix. That can create an off flavor.
I’ve incorporated cherokee purples in sauce before along with other random varieties and it turned out great.
What I’ve taken to doing is peeling, coring and slicing tomatoes before freezing as it’s easier to get all the air out of the bags that way.
Also, a tomato press is a great investment if you can afford a $150 or so investment. You can run the tomatoes through, freeze the unprocessed juice snd then cook down into a finished product when it’s convenient.
Slicing and cherry tomatoes have a lot more moisture than paste/sauce tomatoes, so cooking time is a lot longer.