Good quality tinned tomato’s, is it the placebo effect making me think they make a good dish better?

11 comments

1. No – Better quality tomatoes do taste better, but, if like me, you put pepper, cumin, salt, and a few other things in to your sauce, you may mask this, but for simple sauces, better tomatoes make better sauces – I use napolini if I need them, Lidl value for most occasions though.

2. Mutti is the bomb. I buy them in bulk online.

   And yes it makes a big difference. If you scrimp on the main ingredient of a dish/sauce then its like building a house with foundations made of fudge.

3. Totally agree with Mutti, my wife and I had a disagreement over me buying them when budgets are getting squeezed, but the taste is so much better. They do seem to be on offer regularly so I stock up. Have you tried their puree too?

4. I don’t subscribe to the “Aldi stuff is just as good” claims which I hear fairly often about generic groceries.

   …However, their tinned tomatoes are good, especially at that price point. Not all watery and shite.

   If at Waitrose or something I will always buy the best ones I can. They genuinely do make a difference and personally I think it’s worth spending a bit more on good quality ingredients.

5. Mutti fan here

6. M&S tinned cherry tomatoes are delicious, make a brilliant pasta sauce with the addition of a little oil and seasoning. Yes, the cheap stuff is fine in a casserole or a bolognaise where there are plenty of other strong flavours, but in any dish where the taste of the tomatoes needs to come out, then you need the better stuff.

7. I’m partial to tinned plum tomatoes on a full English breakfast, there is definitely a correlation between price and flavour.

   The cheap supermarket labels tend to be less sweet/ripe and less flavoursome than the branded tins.

   I can’t say I notice the difference on chopped tomatoes as I tend to add lots of other ingredients that mask the quality.

8. Absolutely better quality tastes better. Same as any veg, try a freshly grown carrot vs a supermarket one for example.

   Better quality at this level doesn’t cost much either. I know people who are feeling the strain enough to be buying the cheapest generics they can, but still get a takeaway regularly!

   Not only will better quality meals taste better than the takeaway, they will be infinitely cheaper.

9. The main thing is to get whole plum tomatoes, not the very cheap ones either as they seem to be watery and have rather thick stalky bits. There must be a limit on how good they can actually get as you go up the scale, some of the Italian tins look lovely and cost a lot but they are still tomatoes. They get properly stewed down in many dishes too.

10. They absolutely do make a difference but it depends on what they’re being used for.

    For something like a simple pasta sauce or a pizza sauce good tomatoes make a huge difference. For things like a chili or Bolognese that have a lot more ingredients as well as the tomatoes it doesn’t make much difference.

    I do prefer whole tomatoes in general as opposed to chopped as they tend to be less watery.

11. Ca kya wha, Mutti vs Waitrose essentials, vs Tesco vs Cirio.

    There’s nothing in it. All the same pomodori, picked by Punjabi women, Nigerians and so on.

    Anyway.