Difference between paste and beefsteak tomatos?

[Tworivers1]

My brother uses a lot of romas to make fresh salsa because he likes the firmer flesh and less seeds. The plants he had were very prolific but were very small with the biggest ones being maybe two inches long. He likes the romas because they're not as juicy and have fewer seeds as other tomatos.

I have never grown paste tomatos before and am not sure whether they would fit his criteria as far as the texture and seeds go. I do plan on growing Rinaldo and Rio Grande this year and wonder if they would be suitable for fresh salsa.

Also are plum and paste tomatos the same?

Thanks,

Mark

[travis]

Rio Grande will make a very good salsa tomato as it is an improved Roma type with larger fruit. However, Rio Grande will prove a bit disease susceptible in the lower Midwest, and there are many other more disease tolerant, blocky, elongated, red, paste/saladette determinates that would serve you better if the purpose is a productive, dry textured, meaty, low gel/seed, fresh and canned salsa type tomato.

For such a purpose, I'd recommend Plum Crimson, Plum Dandy, or Mountain Regal, all of which are far more disease tolerant and with the added bonus of being high crimson.

[brokenbar]

"Plum" and "Paste" are not usually the same thing but the terms are used that way sometimes.

A "paste" tomato refers to, when used accurately to describe it, a tomato that is a preferred variety for making tomato sauce (paste). Tomatoes with less liquid and on the dry-ish side make for a more full-bodied sauce that requires much less cooking to arrive at a final consistency. "Plum" varities, at least in my experience, refers more to the shape of the tomato...plump, not round, slightly oval...

I only grow tomatoes for drying and for sauce so I am looking for a tomato that is big, meaty, dry-ish with few seeds and a more tart and tangy taste than most eating-out-of-hand tomatoes. These types of tomato also make better salsa as they are of a firmer texture (especially when cut or cooked) but again, this is just my opinion based on my experience.

For sauce, the only tomato I use is Costoluto Genovese. It comes through the tomato mill practically of a finished consistency and takes little simmering down. It is also a tomato that tastes "ho hum" fresh but changes it's taste completely during cooking.

There are several large paste-type tomatoes:

Opalka
Carol Chyko
Amish Paste
Romeo
Federle

I would also recommend most of the oxheart varieties because they are dry-ish fleshed, meaty and have few seeds. Any of those I have mentioned, plus oxhearts would make a fine salsa.

I am sure Carolyn can more accurately describe the differences between paste and plum than I can but I grow no plum tomatoes at all because they are usually much too moist for my needs. When you are drying 1000 pounds, how fast they dry becomes a major consideration!

[fortyonenorth]

"Plum" describes fruit shape wheres "paste" describe use. Some plums are commonly used as "paste" tomatoes, but some are very juicy. It just depends on the variety.

For the past several years, my favorite salsa tomato has been Black Plum. It's probably similar in size to your roma, but I've tried many larger varieties and haven't found any that match the taste of the finished salsa.

[travis]

I'll stick by my elongated plum suggestions for fresh salsa tomatoes as that is what the original poster specifically sought, and he is growing in a hot, humid summer. If he wants a yellow salsa, I'd add Juane Flamme.

[Tworivers1]

I am also growing Juane Flamme for the first time and I might just try that myself.

I did try Opalka a few years back the BER was terrible on them but I just might try some fresh salsa myself with Kosovo and see how it tastes. Myself, I really like Annies salsa and I just used whatever I have ripe at the time.

But I'm getting ready to plant seeds tomorrow so my brother will just have to live this year with what I already have.


Thanks everyone for the help.

[newatthiskat]

I throw anything and everything into my salsa. Brad's Black Heart was a great addition to the salsa as well as black krim and Opalka (did have tons of BER though). WES, Danko, to name a few. If you have mostly plum and paste and heart varities then add in a few other types it makes some of the best salsa you have ever had.
Brokenbar I am glad you commented about Costoluto Genovese. I am growing it first time this year and it is strictly for my sauces. I am happy to know it is all you grow for that!
Tworivers1. The only salsa I make is annie's salsa. YUMMMY

Kat

[puttgirl]

I like jersey devil and polish linguisa, too. I have much less BER on those two.
Then you also have the pear shaped, which I'm trying more of this year.

[frogwash]

Is there a recipe around for Annie's salsa? Thanks

[newatthiskat]

ANNIE’S SALSA

8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained
2 ½ cups chopped onion
1 ½ cups chopped green pepper
3 – 5 chopped jalapenos
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vinegar
16 oz. tomato sauce
16 oz tomato paste
Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process at 10 lbs of pressure for 30 minutes for pints.

Makes 6 pints
It is not fresh but very yummy!
Kat

[laspasturas]

We put up 50 pints of Annie's salsa last year. It was my first time using that recipe and I don't think I'll ever bother making anything else. Annie's Peach Twist is also really good--you just substitute peaches for half of the tomatoes. We made one batch with yellow toms, peaches and orange habs that turned out really nice looking.

[b54red]

I like a tomato with a bit of zip to it in salsas but use anything that is ripe. Last year I made some with a combination of NAR, Donskoi, Stump of the World, and Kosovo with a few Indian Stripes thrown in. It was the best I have ever made and I credit the strong flavor of Donskoi and Stump for giving it that extra zest.

Brokenbar if you are looking for a heart that is very dry then you might want to try Linnies Oxheart. They had very few seeds and the flesh was very dry even compared to the other hearts I had growing at the time and it was very productive and large.
If you want a heart with a real zesty flavor to dry then you should try Donskoi. They are juicier than most hearts and they can be huge.

[Tworivers1]

Kat,

I believe Annie changed her recipe to include 1 cup of vinegar because of safety concerns. You can use any combination of lime juice, lemon juice or vinegar as long as it equals 1 cup.

Mark

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by newatthiskat

I throw anything and everything into my salsa. Brad's Black Heart was a great addition to the salsa as well as black krim and Opalka (did have tons of BER though). WES, Danko, to name a few. If you have mostly plum and paste and heart varities then add in a few other types it makes some of the best salsa you have ever had.
Brokenbar I am glad you commented about Costoluto Genovese. I am growing it first time this year and it is strictly for my sauces. I am happy to know it is all you grow for that!
Tworivers1. The only salsa I make is annie's salsa. YUMMMY

Kat

You will love these! They are not particularly pretty and really rather "blah" fresh but when you cook them, something extraordinary happens to them (some one on here is a science guru and knows what happens...I say "magic"!) Their most positive feature beyond taste is how little liquid they contain. I run them through the tomato mill and honestly, it looks like tomato sauce from a jar. We cook up 50 to 100 quarts of my marinara every year (family and friends get about half of them) and when you have to "cook down" that much sauce, the faster it reaches finished sauce consistency the better. These are really sweet also yet retain a great tangy-ness. I am 58 and for at least 2/3 of my life, I have made my own marinara sauce. I have tried more than 30 varieties to make my sauce and I always came back to Costoluto Genovese. A very close second is Russo Sicilian Togeta which is getting harder and harder to find. They are just not quite as large as Costoluto Genovese but do have a great taste and they are troopers...always the first to set fruit and first to ripen and nothing, not cold or heat or wind seems to phase them. I grow RST to dry and use a lot of them in salsa. There is also Costoluto Fiorintino which is identical IMHO to Costoluto Genovese but is the "baby brother", being nearly 2/3 less the size of CG. I grow a few of these as they look spectacular stuffed with egg salad or something else if you have to bring food to a party being small, hollow and ruffled and they taste much better fresh than CG.

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by b54red

I like a tomato with a bit of zip to it in salsas but use anything that is ripe. Last year I made some with a combination of NAR, Donskoi, Stump of the World, and Kosovo with a few Indian Stripes thrown in. It was the best I have ever made and I credit the strong flavor of Donskoi and Stump for giving it that extra zest.

Brokenbar if you are looking for a heart that is very dry then you might want to try Linnies Oxheart. They had very few seeds and the flesh was very dry even compared to the other hearts I had growing at the time and it was very productive and large.
If you want a heart with a real zesty flavor to dry then you should try Donskoi. They are juicier than most hearts and they can be huge.

I have tried a lot of oxhearts but Wyoming was a tough grow. They all seemed to need night-time temps consistently above 60 (and that is nearly impossible in Wyoming) to ripen anywhere near the "days to maturity" number given. I am looking forward to trying some of them again in Mexico. I want dry, dry, dry...not a drop or speck of moisture would suit me just fine! The driest-fleshed tomatoes take half the time to dry and you don't have to dry nearly as many of them to get the pounds of finished product you want.

One exception is Dinofrio's German (I think I am spelling it wrong but Carolyn knows) This is one huge, virtually seedless, dry-as-a-bone, tart and tangy hunk of an oxheart tomato! For such a large tomato, production is outstanding, even in Wyoming and they are a mid-season variety. The only place you can get the seed is from Marriana Jones in the current yearbook. She does not offer it on her website. This is one of my all-time top 5 tomatoes. And not that I care, but it tastes great fresh!