Cease Letting Good Tomatoes Go to Waste—Do This As an alternative

The tomato dilemma is actual: You purchase a haul of fantastically ripe summer season tomatoes, fastidiously transport them residence and not using a single one getting bumped and bruised, then set them out on a counter to eat over the following few days. However earlier than you’ve got managed to take pleasure in all of them, there are indicators of wrinkling and collapse. It is the unending pressure between two very true issues: Ripe, summer season tomatoes are the perfect tomatoes (some would say solely tomatoes), and ripe summer season tomatoes teeter on the precipice of an incredibly fast decline.

What to do? Nicely, as controversial as it’s, you may put tomatoes on the brink within the fridge: We have accomplished the exams, and it’s by far the preferable choice to interrupt down and decay. However there’s one other factor you are able to do first, and it helps stave off untimely tomato loss of life, shopping for you time to truly take pleasure in these beautiful summer season fruit: Retailer them stem-side down.

That is as a result of the stem finish is a weak level in an in any other case well-contained little package deal. Tomato skins, whereas skinny, are good at holding juices locked contained in the fruit. However the round scar the place the stem was as soon as connected is sort of a wound: As soon as picked from the plant, a tomato quickly loses moisture via the stem scar, turning a as soon as juicy tomato into an more and more dry, wrinkled shell of its former self. 

By storing tomatoes the wrong way up, the scar is blocked, which slows moisture loss and helps them keep plump and juicy longer. You’ll be able to even go one step additional by masking the scar with a bit of tape to lock in much more of the tomato’s water. It is a methodology many cooks use, and one which former editor Kenji has proven to work: In his testing, Kenji discovered that tomatoes saved stem aspect down for 3 days misplaced simply 1 to 2% of their weight, whereas fruit saved proper aspect up misplaced as much as 7%. That may very well be the distinction between a tomato bursting with juice and one which’s shriveled up. 

So the following time you come residence with a basket of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes from the market, do your self a favor and take a second to place them correctly, stem aspect down. You will not get rid of the good tomato dilemma, however you’ll scale back it.