What is A Bad Tomato?

[UFXEFU]

The worst tomato I've every eaten was wonderful. With that said, some are better than others. That's probably why I have a hard time rating tomato flavor.

Bob

[heirloomtomaguy]

I cant stand a tomato with a mealy texture. The kind that is so dry you need a glass of water. They are good for paste but not for fresh eating.

[b54red]

Living down here in the deep south there is no way of getting around tough skins late in the summer even with varieties that seem to have wonderfully thin skins earlier in the year; but any tomato that has tough skin early will be like leather in the midsummer heat. The worst is tomatoes with a mealy tasteless quality and most any can get that with enough rain but the ones that are like that when it isn't overly wet are the worst.
I like tomatoes with a good balance of sweet and tart that have plenty of juice and with a texture not too soft but definitely not too firm and with a thin skin. I just described a great pink beefsteak or an exceptional red didn't I? I also like the rich wonderful nuanced flavors of a good black tomato that has ripened well in the middle of a hot summer that hasn't received too much rain to weaken that great taste. If I have done without long enough then almost any tomato will do.

Bill

[jmsieglaff]

In no certain order:

Mushy tomatoes.
Tomatoes that are too dry (not enough juice)--kinda along the the lines of the baked potato comment.
Overly thick skin

[AlittleSalt]

I don't care for mushy or too thick skinned tomatoes either, but there are some that I think are just as bad or worse.

The tomatoes on salad bars at restaurants. The slicers look perfect. They're beautiful red, the juice glistens, and they have absolutely no taste whatsoever. The same goes for cherry tomatoes at restaurants around here. It's a fast food joint, but the cherry tomatoes at CiCis Pizza actually taste bad - almost as if they have soured.

[Cole_Robbie]

My all-time worst experience was with tomatoes bought from a home gardener's roadside stand, near Gainesville, Florida. I did not know a tomato could taste that bad.

Second worst are the earliest tomatoes at my market. They are picked green and gassed, never ripening past a light pink. But the vendor sells everything he takes, and gets double the price that I do, because he is the only one at the market with tomatoes.

The worst tomatoes I have grown myself include Container's Choice F1, Celebrity, Black Brandywine, and Violet Jasper. There may be multiple strains of Black Brandywine, and Celebrity may likely have changed over the years. I didn't like Copia, either, but it was better than the others listed here.

Mushiness is a constant theme with all of these tomatoes.

[JLJ_]

Agree that it's mainly a taste thing -- aversive or absolutely no taste. If a tomato is just a little bland, or has thick skins or too many or too large seeds, it is usually usable when cooked, but there has to be something to work with.

I don't know if we want to generalize adversely about Florida commercial tomatoes, though -- at least without exempting some of the efforts being made there -- it seems to be the only place where there is a serious University effort to produce good tasting tomatoes suitable for commercial use -- the sort of work the USDA used to do a century ago.

And, imp, do Texas Tigger sharks bounce when they prowl? Sort of a dolphin-like swim, perhaps?

[oakley]

Not defending the grocery toms as i have probably 30lbs of harvest in my freezer still...sauce, roasted, smoked, slices, bags of cherries frozen whole...

I bought two med size beefsteak-ish before x-mas and made BLT's Christmas morning. Good texture but needed a splash of good sherry vinegar and a tsp of maple syrup. Soaked an hour while tending the bread toasting and bacon. They passed fine. A new greenhouse offering this year. Doubt i'll buy again but served the need/obsession at the time.

I just bought a sleeve of Cumato last week, the ones from Mexico. They were cheap on sale and firm. From past experience if just a bit soft they s*ck. With a grilled steak and fresh tarragon they held up, ...and a needed splash of good vinegar.

[JerryHaskins]

I cannot stand a tomato that has a green core . . . and every hamburger served in every fast food restaurant seems to ONLY have tomatoes with a big green core.

You'd think that somewhere in the world, a person would eventually get a hamburger with a red, ripe tomato slice on it. So far I never have and I don't know anybody who ever has.

And any tomato that has ever seen the inside of a refrigerator is not edible as far as I am concerned. Walmart must sell only refrigerated tomatoes as best I can tell.

[maxjohnson]

I can't convince my mom or any family members to not put tomatoes in the fridge.

[JosephineRose]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

The other day, Jan (My wife) was telling me about what she thinks a bad tomato is. She says a bad tomato is one that is:

1. Mushy inside.
2. You have to spit the tough skin out.

I would agree with these two and add flavorless as my number 3. Although I love sweet tomatoes, I have great appreciation for those that aren't but instead have that strong tomato flavor that the scent of the fruit on the vine suggests.

[dmforcier]

Walmart must sell only refrigerated tomatoes as best I can tell.

Don't be too hard on Wal-mart. Strange as it may seem, I got my best commercial tomatoes there last year. Some lumpy, discolored things at a good price that tasted wonderful! I've since tried buying the lumpy "heirlooms" at other grocery store, with much disappointment. Back to Wal-mart.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by JerryHaskins

And any tomato that has ever seen the inside of a refrigerator is not edible as far as I am concerned. Walmart must sell only refrigerated tomatoes as best I can tell.

As long as it was ripe before it went in, the flavor won't be affected if you let it come back up to room temp.

[Gardeneer]

Bad tomato for fresh eating : Is too acidic, to dry to eat raw. But you can use then in cooking/sauce/soup with herbs and spices.

[Worth1]

You get a tomato down in the 50's and it kills the flavor from now on I dont care if it warms back up or not.
worth