San Marzano tomatoes: Any discernible differences?
 

Quite a few mentions in various threads about San Marzano tomatoes but has anyone done a comparision taste test? If so, how does one best use it?

Watched some French TV programme about food around the Naples/Campania area and one of the things covered was, of course, San Marzano and its tomatoes. So ended up opening a can of supposedly DOP ones (packaged for a Canadian importer) that I found in, of all places, the recently-expanded food section of my local Wal Mart a few weeks ago. Previously searched in other higher end (pretty much everything else) supermarkets that may carry, at best, Italian tomatoes but no sightings of any San Marzanos.

Made a pizza sauce with it (olive oil, garlic onions, dried basic, oregano) last night with most of it and another batch this morning with the rest of the can. Can't say I can discern any difference between them and Italian or domestic Canadian plum tomatoes without a side-by-side taste test.

FWIW the tomatoes come whole but peeled around surrounded with crushed purée, all supposedly San Marzano DOP stuff.

I've seen San Marzano origin (as in seeds from) regionally-grown tomatoes but the terroir won't be the same (though there is volcanic soil locally, just not the Vesuvio stuff).

I don't think the difference would be noticeable in a pizza sauce with lots of other ingredients. I use them only when I am making Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce because there are few ingredients and I think it is always good to use the best ingredients under those conditions. It's one of those elusive things that unless you were doing it side by side you might not notice but yes, I do think it matters in some cases. https://food52.com/recipes/13722-mar...h-onion-butter

Did you cook the sauce? You won't really notice much difference if they're uncooked, imo. The difference is definitely noticeable to me. They are much sweeter.

Thanks. I'll try that when I go restock (or make my next foray into a WM)..

Yes cooked with aforementioned ingredients. Today's sauce was cooked (gently simmered/reduced) longer so I'll see if it tastes any different.

I'm not discounting, given where I bought it, that it could also be a lower grade than the pricey stuff that the stuff is usually marketed as (ran me about C$ 3 2/3 per ~794 ml can)

I find you can taste the quality difference when making a marinara sauce, tomato soup or pizza sauce where tomatoes are the star of the show (e.g., a neopolitan style pizza especially a margherita) -- but if the sauce is secondary you can't really tell and it's not worth the added price (e.g., meat sauce, pizza loaded with other toppings).

We'll use San Marzanos for homemade marina sauce and homemade pizza sauce (because we make a lot of margherita pizzas) but if we're making something like chili we'll get the lower grade stuff.

I agree about the noticable sweetness. They're too sweet for my liking in a pizza sauce.
I found them (Cento brand) at Trader Joe's.

I get them at Trader Joe’s. They seem less acidic to me. I use them where the tomatoes would be the star of the show.

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So this was on the label. Tart, check, Low seed, check. Firm, guess so, Red, without saying.

Will report when I make something minimalist (pizzas had a rather piquant salami, sautéed cremini mushrooms).

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well, the price difference is obvious. There was also a can of store brand peeled tomatoes, probably grown in Mexico, at $1.49. I bought the San Marzano. They’re going into the crock pot Saturday along with a chuck roast and lots of garlic and onions, possibly too much to be able to taste the difference. But I will mention them in advance to my guests and see if anyone has a comment to make.

Or California. There is a French documentary called Empire of the Red Gold (literal translation into English). A California farmer was interviewed. His farm (or perhaps 3 of them) supposedly produces more tomatoes than Italy (hard to fathom)..

There have been similar stories about shrimp and garlic. FWIW, French independent lab-analysed tested of random packages of farm shrimp from India, Madagascar among other places found that antibiotic levels were either non-existent or at levels a fraction of maximum permissible in the E.U.

The one about garlic (Ail love you) strangely did not test garlic from China. Chinese production is apparently centered around Shandong where it has been cultivated for close to 2,000 years.

In 1997-1999, I lived in Tracy, California. We were surrounded by tomato fields. Most of them were used to make ketchup.

FWIW, Muir Glen (Calif) whole peeled tomatoes has won Cooks Illustrated (or was it America Test Kitchen) taste test. I still buy the Cento San Marzano for pretty much everything.

I tossed the can on top of the roast and it cooked for about 9 hours. Guests were asked to comment on the tomatoes. All of us agreed that they were sweet with a very distinct tomato flavor - maybe reminiscent of sun dried. Still, the flavor may have been masked somewhat by onions and garlic. The tomatoes were peeled and surrounded by tomato sauce. Is that common? My can also included basil but the flavor was missing.

Yes, in the cans, the tomatoes are peeled and surrounded by juice :-)
as long as the can says San Marzano and DOP, it’s a legit Italian export. The DOP part is essential because “san marzano” words are allowed for branding and style description. It’s very tricky :-)

Of course, one is relying on good faith of those along the supply line, much like olive oil and meat, and no shady brokers are involved .

You will see "San Marzano style" as a descriptor by imitators, much as you see "method champenois" for sparkling wines that are not Champagne, or "Serrano style".for ham that isn't authentic Serrano.

I was looking in a upper-scale supermarket the other day and came across this brand, which was comparable in cost to the DOP stuff from WM. It also carried another DOP brand that was nerly 2x as much as this, or 4x as much as a can of generic tomatoes.

FWIW, ATK is the name of the show broadcast on PBS, and Cook's Illustrated is the name of one of the magazines ATK publishes (the more-simple home-style one is Cook's Country).

Cooks Illustrated also has a website. I have been watching the show for years...sometimes it gets a bit too anal about things for me but lots of good advice and I have learned a lot about food and cooking. I love the science behind things. Alton Brown is good for that too.
I think you answered your own question about major discernable differences when there are lots of other flavors involved. That being said, for some dishes I believe in buying the best possible ingredients that are affordable(at least to me---I buy a lot of generic stuff too) within reason especially when they are the major components of a dish. One good thing about buying whole peeled tomatoes as opposed to diced is that whole canned tomatoes are packed when they are ate their ripest while chopped often has a mix of ripe & not so ripe so you might not get the best flavor.

I'm hoping the Italians don't gas their tomatoes with ethylene to get them to turn colour (hope that isn't permitted under San Marzano DOP, or better yet, Italian or preferably E.U. laws). The hard, tasteless but red and perfect tomatoes one gets in N. American supermarkets may be a result of ethylene gassing , or breeding, or both.

Agreed on “style” plus as a brand name ... of tomatoes made in USA. Lol.

I’ll buy organic diced for making mexican rice and yes, there’s risk that it’s not safest but still not horrid.

The ethylene gassing for colour is fine (and oranges can be oranged the same way) but it just doesn't further ripen the fruit! FWIW, ethylene treatment is a permitted organic treatment in the U.S.

then it’s really good that it’s okay since people consume a lot of organic produce to balance the pesticide chemicals :-)

Before the misinformation wheel starts spinning, it should be noted that ethylene is a naturally produced gas by all ripening fruits. This is why it "works" to put unripe bananas in a paper bag for a day or two to ripen them up. The bananas themselves are producing ethylene, which is a plant hormone that promotes ripening.

Many fruits and vegetables are harvested unripe and gassed with ethylene in the supply chain to "ripen" them as they are distributed, however, as correctly noted above this not as effective as ripening on the plant naturally, because while the fruit ripens on the plant it continues to accumulate sugar and other nutrients from the green parts of the plant. This is one of many reasons that garden grown tomatoes are always better tasting than store bought...most store bought tomatoes are gassed.

I’m just here to day that I did a google search on SM tomatoes and was shocked to see a FT thread on the Google Top 5.