Store Bought Cans...What Do You Prefer?

[chickenparm]

Aside from the best mail ordering stuff,have you found any store brands you really like to use?

Red Gold,Red Pack,etc is really good.I tried a few store brand generic label kinds and they were not so great.

Walmart Great Value is OK,but prefer the Red Gold over that.I cannot get any better brands in my area without mail order.Some of you may be able to buy better stuff in the local stores.Just curious what you like.

I also tried Furmano's crushed tomatoes,their OWN pizza sauce mix,and etc in the cans and it was nothing I ever wanted to add to a Pizza.I bought a few to do a back to back taste test and they all tasted yucky out of the can.Never gonna buy those again.Uggh!

[dmcavanagh]

Chickenparm, I'vebeen doing a lot of taste testing on canned crushed tomatoes. Only crushed, these are not whole tomatoes (that will be another project). For what it's worth, here's how I rate them (some you may not have available to you). The best i've found are Scalafani, next are 6 in 1 followed closely by Pastosa and Pastene. Cora would be my next choice. Hunt's are decent, and I have a suspicion that Walmart's GV's are packed by Hunt's. I haven't been able to find Progresso so I can't comment on those. Many people on this site like tomato products from Stanislaus, a California company that supplies many restaurants and pizzerias. Red Pack and Tuttarusso were two of the most disappointing of all the tomatoes I have tried.

[dmcavanagh]

Forgot to add that Furmano, Contadina and Pomi are all horrid, haven't tried Muir Glen crushed tomatoes (haven't seen any around lately).

[chickenparm]

Thanks Dmc,
I agree about the Horrid ones..my gawd!Not even sure how to make those a decent pasta sauce!
 

I did buy a can of Hunts crushed tomatoes,but only for a test.Im curious to see how this might even taste on a pie.

The other brands you mentioned,I cannot get locally.

-Bill

[Jackie Tran]

Forgot to add that Furmano, Contadina and Pomi are all horrid, haven't tried Muir Glen crushed tomatoes (haven't seen any around lately).

Muir Glens aren't bad at all if you don't have better stuff to compare it to side by side.   They are also relatively inexpensive.   Cost wise though, I think it's a bit cheaper to buy the good stuff (Staunilaus/Eschalon/whatever else you really like) in bulk and freeze the leftovers.  It's a bit more effort to ziplock sauce and freeze but overall you pay a bit less for a better quality sauce IMO. 

Speaking of sauce.  I saw these brands at a local italian mart recently.  They were $5-$6 per big can.  Just wondering if anyone has tried these yet?  I still have a ton of the good stuff to go through so I didn't buy any.

Chau

[dmcavanagh]

Tran Man, haven't seen either of those brands around in my neighborhood. I sure would like to see more people answer in this thread, would like to continue my taste testing. I promise you that the ones are rated highly are very good!

[Ronzo]

Bionaturae has some pretty good stuff. I don't think I've ever seen anyone mention them here, but I love 'em. Especially the whole tomatoes.

http://www.bionaturae.com/tomato.html

[PizzaHog]

Cento has not been mentioned yet and is common at least around here.  The favored types seem to be their San Marzano DOP's, and also their Italian's that include ROA stamped on the top of the can (along with whatever else is stamped on there).
Every area is diff, but it might be worth searching for a local restaurant/pizza supply that will sell to the public also.  They are a bit hard to find since as wholesalers there is little advertising, but they will appear in the yellow pages usually.  If you can locate one it might be the holy grail for ingredients.

[jkb]

I've been very disappointed with my usual go-to tomatoes lately (Redpack, Muir Glen, Cento).  They have been very metallic and lacking rich tomato flavor.  The Muir Glen seem to be mostly water in the can and the tomatoes still have most of the skin attached.  So last month, I went out and bought several different brands I hadn't tried yet.  I did well.

Bella Terra - Very good, expensive ~$4.50/can

Coluccio - Very good, expensive ~$4.50/can

La Bella - Good, good value ~$2.50

Sclafani - Very good, better than the Bella Terra and Coluccio, I think.  Great Value ~$2.50/can - I'm going to buy it by the case.

[Ronzo]

I've been very disappointed with my usual go-to tomatoes lately (Redpack, Muir Glen, Cento).  They have been very metallic an lacking rich tomato flavor. 

I've never liked Cento for that exact reason.

The Muir Glenn Puree I just bought the other day was fine.

[JConk007]

Carmelina's!! san marzano right in the middle bottom the best reasonable can I have found
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10829.0.html

[Essen1]

Whatever you guys buy, don't buy Hunt's "Whole peeled tomatoes". I've made that mistake just the other day.

Absolutely horrible.

The tomatoes were only half skinned, they were tough and I think not very ripe at all, not to mention the taste. Don't waste your money on them.

[ponzu]

I have been loving the Nina brand sanmarzanos recently.  They have a really rich tomatoey flavor that has excellent purity and meatiness.

I recently tried the 6 in 1s and did not care for them.  They had a ketchupy flavor and too many bits of skin.

Prior to that my go to has always been Cento italian style tomatoes.  I know they get a lot of bad press on this board but they have an honest tomato flavor that really tastes great at high heat.  The Nina's do smoke them though.

[Chet]

   I know this is a not a big name, but I tried a Can of Walmart GV crushed tomatoes a few weeks ago, they were exceptionally good, I thought maybe I got lucky with a good can, so a few days ago I tried a second can, these are GOOD. let me know if anyone has given them a try, 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp Italian seasonings, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1 TBL EVOO, pinch of red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar more or less to your likings, hit it with a imersion blender for 5-10 seconds, refrigerate for a day. also a delicious dip for Calzones.


     Chet

[Pete-zza]

Chet,

Quite a few of us on the forum have tried the Wal-Mart Great Value crushed tomatoes. They are a good tomato for the price. However, having tested the WMGV crushed tomatoes when I tried to reverse-engineer and clone the Papa John's pizza sauce, as I discussed at Reply 30 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,6633.msg59208.html#msg59208, I concluded that the WMGV crushed tomatoes had less solid content (more water) than the 6-in-1s and Stanislaus Tomato Magic crushed tomatoes. However, on the finished pizza, I could not detect a major difference. The WMGV sauce did not spread as well and was more watery but it was a good sauce to use if the other tomatoes are not available. I always keep a spare can of the WMGV crushed tomatoes in my pantry in case I run out of the other tomatoes.

Peter

[norma427]

Chet,

I also have tried the Great Value Crushed Tomatoes and even made a sauce with the WMGV crushed and the Great Value All Natural Tomato Paste to compare how it would taste to my regular sauce I make for market.  If you are interested to see what I had to say about how the results were can you see what I did at the December 2009 Monthly Challenge, at reply 2 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9744.msg85554.html#msg85554

I also tried Great Value Crushed Tomatoes with Les’s sauce and found that almost tasted like his original sauce using 6 in 1's.  I can just eat that sauce plain, because I think it is so good and naturally sweet.  Each time I make that sauce I eat spoonfuls of that sauce.  My daughter and mother also think that is the best sauce they have ever tasted.

I am going to continue to experiment with the Great Value Crushed Tomatoes.  I think they are a good value, if used with other spices or fresh herbs.  I am going to try these tomatoes after I dry my herbs from my garden to see how the sauce will taste.

I made a pizza last evening and used Les’s sauce with Great Value crushed tomatoes and I had defrosted the sauce.  I needed to drain a little bit of water off from defrosting, but the taste of the sauce was still good after freezing.  If you want to see how that sauce looked on the pizza, this is where I posted the pizza.  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,11875.msg110428.html#msg110428

I thought the sauce tasted the same after making the pizza.

Norma

[crazybob]

Our "Penn-Jersey" Pizza sauce, starts with South Jersey ground (Don Pepinno's), & Central PA. Pureed (Furmano's) tomatoes.  This will make almost 5 gallons.

[dmcavanagh]

Scalfani's, which are my favorite are a product of the Don Pepino company.

[albert6500]

Since heat above 212 degrees dissipates tomato flavor, canned tomato products are the highly recommended way to go for pizza sauce making instead of the cooked varieties.  This is because the vacuum method used by the larger canneries is done under far less heat.  Canned pizza sauces that are not fully prepared with added spices make an excellent sauce base, allowing you the flexibility of adding your own seasonings to create that 'signature' sauce. My personal favorites are the Stanislaus products; Full Red with basil, Saporito and Super Dolce.( A special thanks here to Jackie Tran for the Super Dolce suggestion) Rarely though, will any one of these products provide you with the perfect consistency. You can achieve your own desired consistency by blending the thicker Saporito or Super Dolce with the thinner Full Red. Just add your favorite seasonings and go for it................

[scott r]

The latest crop of Sclafani italian tomatoes and the ROA coded italian tomatoes (various brands) are especially good this year.   (no tinny taste in my roa's!)