Tomato Seeds in Sauce = More Flavor

[Bill/SFNM]

For those looking to get the most flavor out of the tomatoes they use for topping pizzas, there is an interesting note in the July/August Cook's Illustrated: According to a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

... the seeds and jelly actually contain three times the amount of flavor-enhancing glutamic acid as the flesh ....

I often toss them. 

Bill/SFNM

[sourdough girl]

Crickey!
This issue of Cook's Illustrated has not hit my mailbox yet...  can't wait to read it as I also usually toss the seeds/jelly, too, for the obvious reasons of watering down whatever application I'm using them in, to say nothing of the seeds seeming bitter when you bite them.  Might have to revisit that practice!  Will be an interesting read!  Thanks for the heads-up, Bill!

~sd

EDIT: just went looking through my stack of unread cooking mags and there it was... that's what leaving town for two weeks will get you!  Guess I'd better get with the program!      

[pizzaJoe]

Hi,

When I was messing around with different sauces, I too had heard about the "bitterness" associated with seeds in the sauce.  So, I used to use a food mill to extract the seeds but, in the end, I didn't notice any bitterness when I got lazy and just left them in.  Eventually, laziness won out.  However, having said that, I wasn't thinking the seeds/jelly had anything to do with more sweetness and just attributed it to the current batch of tomatoes that I've found.  For reference, I now use the Cento Italian tomatoes "From Italy" ("ROA" inkjetted on the top of the can).

Some spices, a quick blend in the food processor and a brief heat-up/cool down just to release the spice flavors and my sauce is good to go.  Yes, I've tried cold sauce but I think my pizza cooks too quickly for the (dried) spice flavors to release in the oven (typical, a one topping pizza is in my 550+ degree oven for about 6 minutes, with one turn at 3 minutes to provide even cooking).  I've never done a pre/post weigh but I also believe the brief heat-up removes some of the dreaded water content from the sauce also...   

 

Joe

[DWChun]

I don't usually keep the seeds for my sauce but my method for making my sauce involves passing the blended tomatoes through a fine sieve. I end up throwing away the seeds but little else. Most of the jelly is in the sauce.

I've tasted the bitterness in tomato seeds but I believe that there is a varying degrees of bitterness depending on the type of tomato you use. When I first embarked on my pizza journey, I used Unico tomatoes, which did have a fairly bitter seed. The amount of seeds in the tomatoes was also a factor in that the Unico canned tomatoes had a lot of seeds whereas my current choice of Pastene and Eden Organic tomatoes have far fewer seeds in general. I don't notice a significant difference in flavour when I leave the seeds in when using my current canned tomato choices. I prefer the seedless approach simply because I like the look and texture of a seedless sauce.


DW