Best non-paste type for canning/sauce and Best drying tomato?

16 years ago

OK, I must be search engine challenged tonight :). I KNOW there must be threads already that answer my question, but I can't find them.

What variety would be the best for sundried tomatoes?

Also, I see several references to using a good meaty non-paste heirloom for sauce, but I can't find any names. What non-paste would you recommend to be used for canning sauce and quartered tomatoes?

Any links to the appropriate threads would be much appreciated!

Thank you,

Bellatrix

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Comments (14)

trudi_d
16 years ago
For sauce I would use 'Mexicana' which is offered by Burpees.
bella_trix
Original Author
16 years ago
Whoops - I left out one key word: Heirloom. I am looking for heirloom varieties. Do you know if Mexicana is a heirloom or hybrid? Thanks for the recommendation, either way!

Bellatrix
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trudi_d
16 years ago
It's a hybrid with superior flavor and production. If I didn't think it was worth mentioning I wouldn't have posted it. When you're canning you need reliability--that's why I posted this great tomato.

For an heirloom sauce tomato I would suggest Garden Peach; fuzzball yellow tom holds a long time on the stem without rotting, makes great sauce and is uniform in size.

Another highly productive paste tom would be Orange Banana.

T
PaulF_Ne
16 years ago
Can't help you with the sundried part, but we have canned and frozen every other heirloom variety we have grown with very good results. Mostly I have grown mid to late season larger pink and red tomatoes with a few yellow/gold varieties thrown in. I think I am up to around a hundred varieties and haven't really had many bad ones yet. If they taste good fresh they will be good canned.
macheske
16 years ago
The choice of a good sundried or dehydrated tomato is very subjective. Basically, choose one that you like to eat and expect the flavor to be more intense. If you dry a sweet tasting tomato you'll get very sweet dried tomatos. It does make sense to pick a variety that has less water content to make the process faster.
barkeater
16 years ago
The best heirlooms I've found for sauce are mostly oxheart varieties, which have few seeds and make very thick sauce. Plus they are usually highly productive on smaller indeterminate plants:

German Red Strawberry
Wes
Anna Russian
fusion_power
16 years ago
Good drying tomato varieties include Principe Borghese, Borgo Cellano, Sungold, and Opalka.

Good canning varieties include Picardy and Rutgers.

Good sauce can be made from just about any tomato, however, Heidi is one of my choices for production and flavor.

Fusion
carolyn137
16 years ago
OK, I must be search engine challenged tonight :). I KNOW there must be threads already that answer my question, but I can't find them.

*****

Bella, for starters, go to near the bottom of this first page to the thread on paste tomatoes, and in that thread I linked to a search here at GW on paste tomatoes.

Any time there's a thread on paste tomatoes there are folks who say they prefer to NOT use them, and I'm one of those folks. And in almost all of those threads you'll find lots of suggestions for non-paste tomatoes that others have used for sauce.

I'm sure you tried the search feature at the bottom of this page but if not, just enter something like non-paste tomatoes and see what that brings up. It should bring up those threads where non-paste tomatoes were mentioned.

I don't dry tomatoes so can't be a help there.

Hope this helps b/c I know that I and others have listed our non-paste faves many times in several of those threads on paste tomatoes.

Carolyn
tom8olvr
16 years ago
Can't help you with the drying - but I've used any excess in the garden for canning with great results... I think any great tasting tomato will make a great tasting sauce.

I concur with Barkeater - Anna Russian - or any oxheart does make a FINE sauce.

Good luck...
bella_trix
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks everyone, for the tomato recommendations! I will definitely try one of the oxhearts next year and maybe some others.

Fusion - I was very happy to see sungold listed for drying. I dried a bunch, but had them disappear to a paper thinness. I'm glad they are still useable. If nothing else, they are really pretty dried.

On another note, do past threads disappear after a while? Two years ago, when I searched for a heirloom paste tomato, I remember getting lots of threads. I don't get many now and nothing older than 2005. What happened to the old posts??

Thanks again,
Bellatrix
trudi_d
16 years ago
Thoe forums only save hold 67 pages of posts.
mockapple
16 years ago
This year I tried growing Principe Borghese, which is often mentioned as a good drying tomato. So I dried some (in the oven at 200 deg. for about 8 hrs) and they did turn out quite good. Mine weren't that great fresh (kind of dry/mealy) but cooked and dried they have that rich flavor I associate with Italian tomatoes. And yes, it's an heirloom.
dangould
16 years ago
For me the trick is to remove the seeds before making the sauce. this removes a lot of moisture quickly and easily. I prefer any good garden tomato over the paste types. I like the flavor much better than the flavor of paste tomatoes. Just my taste buds.

I will take the watery seeds and make some tomato juice. and or ferment some seeds for saving up for next year.
maupin
16 years ago
I dried my tomatoes too dry and too thin my first time--just ground them into powder and used as a (flavorful) thickener to sauces.

Opalka is my favorite drying tomato--very little gel, lots of flavor, dries much more quickly than beefsteaks. I sauce a 50/50 mix of Opalka and a flavorful heirloom--although its heirloom status is questionable, I find that Arkansas Traveler is a good choice--heavy yielder in hot weather and terrific flavor. Another good sauce option for me is Uncle Mark Bagby, a Kentucky family heirloom that is a very large pink tomato with small seed locules, great flavor, and a good hot weather yielder (for me, anyway).

Best non-paste type for canning/sauce and Best drying tomato?

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Best non-paste type for canning/sauce and Best drying tomato?

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