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The tomatoes had a milder muted flavor when tasted raw.
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Both tomatoes are on the sweeter side but not bad overall. In our 2020 tasting, Ligaya found the Certified San Marzano variety “velvety tasting, but more earthy than bright.” And Wirecutter supervising editor Winnie Yang “discerned more tomato flavor in the than in the solids.” The same was true in my 2021 tasting. The San Marzano tomatoes have a slightly chunkier puree, and they’re a bit more acidic. The Italian-style tomatoes have a strong tomato flavor that’s sweeter than the San Marzano ones.
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Like our panel did in 2020, I tasted all of the tomatoes twice: once straight out of the can and heated through, and then again made into Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce.
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I also tasted two new cans of tomatoes: Target’s Good & Gather Whole Peeled Tomatoes and the Cento Italian Style Peeled Tomatoes. I wanted to see how the new crop of tomatoes compared to when we first tested them. We were also surprised to learn that price didn’t always correspond to quality.ĭue to the pandemic, I wasn’t able to assemble a panel of taste testers for our 2021 update, so I retried our top four picks from 2020 on my own (except for Target’s Market Pantry Tomatoes, which have been discontinued). We tasted 28-ounce cans from 12 different brands and found a huge range-from tomatoes that were sweet enough to eat straight out of the can to ones that carried a whiff of dead animal. In early 2020, before the pandemic changed everything, I organized a blind taste test with some of my colleagues from the Wirecutter test kitchen and NYT Cooking in an effort to find the best cans of whole peeled tomatoes.
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Others are velvety, brilliantly red, and full of flavor. Some tomatoes are tough, underripe, and insipid. Having worked in the food and restaurant industry for a decade, I can tell you that no two brands of canned tomatoes are exactly alike. If you’re looking for inspiration, try making Marcella Hazan’s perfectly simple tomato sauce, our favorite Instant Pot butter chicken, a bright shakshuka, or a hearty vegetarian ribollita. Although we liked some brands more than others, most will serve you well in a comforting pot of chili or batch of sauce. So take the ranking below with a grain of salt, especially if the recommended brands happen to be out of stock. Which is to say, sometimes the best canned tomatoes are whatever you can find in your cupboard or on store shelves. Though most grocery stores are well stocked again, for many of us, the memories of long lines and food shortages are still too close for comfort.