I always thought you weren't supposed to chill tomatoes because it kills the taste?

@thinkingwoman well, after chilling or freezing, a tomato's texture certainly won't be the same. There's no way to preserve that ripe, just-picked taste, or to use a preserved tomato in a salad.

But if you are preserving for sauces or stews, then freezing seems to preserve the taste just as well (if not better) than cooking and canning.

Keeping tomatoes in the fridge (below 12C) will cause cold damage: the tomatoes become mealy.

As long as you're cooking the frozen tomatoes, you shouldn't notice the change in texture.

I think this just blew my mind. lol! I don't have a lot of space of jarred tomatoes but I do have a full sized freezer!

Not enough freezer space here, so I canned 70 pounds of tomatoes this week. By next summer, I fully intend to have a free-standing unit and will be in frozen tomato heaven! :-D

I tried this a few weeks back after reading that trick about freezing to make them easier to peel. Then I took a few out to make a quick sauce for a pizza. They did indeed peel super easily, but I didn't let them thaw completely, so they were still partly frozen when I cut them up. Then when I made the sauce it seemed much much waterier than usual...I had to cook it down SO much and even then it was a little too watery for pizza...

Did I just have a particularly watery batch of tomatoes? Or did the freezing (and/or not entirely thawing first) have something to do with it??

I do this too, but with a slight variation. I blend (or food-processorize) the whole tomatoes for just a few seconds to chop them up into an early-stage sauce. It takes up less space in the freezer and is easy to add to soups, sauces, baked things, etc.

I do this and it is great to pull fresh tomatoes from the freezer, defrost, peel the skins off, and proceed. Brooklynnina, I usually defrost completely then deseed and "gunk" before using--they do tend to be waterier out of the freezer.

I do this all the time, except I core them first because it's a pain to get the cores out later.

I think this process is OK for supermarket tomatoes because they were picked green and stored cold already.

To do this to a truly ripe tomato is nothing short of criminal.

Brooklynnina, they were watery because you had the juice still in them. You needed just the pulp or else you have to cook them down more. If you want the water out, thaw them and then remove the juicy part where the seeds are at and only use the pulp.

There's a reason why canned tomatoes are in the supermarkets and not frozen tomatoes.

There's a reason why Italian grandmothers aren't getting together to process and freeze tomatoes in August, but rather to make sauce / cook them and then can that or freeze that.

If as some posters suggested, you should only freeze them to make sauce or cook after anyway...well, they'll take up less space in the freezer after cooked. Cook, then freeze.

Tomatoes at the height of their freshness can't be preserved well without cooking. Chilling ruins their texture. Thus, agreed with poster that it's sacrilege to fridge or freeze peak summer tomatoes. Don't even refrigerate them. If your plan is to cook it anyway, you will have better results picking at peak ripeness and cooking / canning then.

Some things freeze well...I've worked the line at restaurants that use only local ingredients that will freeze the bounty of summer berries and then use them in the off season. Frozen tomatoes...no. This post does a disservice to your readers

I'm on the fence about freezing tomatoes, but i think the idea of freezing peppers just blew my mind a little. I can't tell you how many times I've made chili and wanted a fresh jalapeno that didn't cost a dollar to buy when in the summer they're 10 cents a piece at the farmstand!

I have done the frozen tomato thing before and i find that it works perfectly for me. There have been times when i have managed to get tomatoes but have not right then been able to make sauce. into the freezer they go till later and as an added bonus the skins come off like magic for me.

Thanks for everyone's input on my watery sauce problem. I realized in retrospect that I usually make my sauce from canned tomatoes, rarely directly from fresh (which I tend to buy in smaller quantities and just eat raw...). I gotta say, much as the freezing thing appeals, I'm finding schriftleider's arguments above very persuasive... But as I still have several in the freezer I may try a little more experimenting before I do (or don't do) an end-of-summer stock-up!

You guys should read the article about gazpacho on Serious Eats. He recommends freezing the cut up veggies before making the soup. I tried it and it was divine. The science is all explained too: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/andalusian-gazpacho-recipe.html

I recently froze a large batch of tomatoes from my parents garden. I've only used a few so far for a batch of Paneer Makhani and it turned out terrific...according to my husband, one of my best ever.

I love this idea!

A response to @schriftlieder: I think that the reason that Italian grandmas were not gathering to freeze tomatoes is because chest freezers were not available until relatively modern times. And today many people still have more room to store canned products than frozen products.

I do agree that there is a difference between frozen tomatoes and canned tomatoes; there are differences in taste and texture. However, I find a much brighter, fresher taste from frozen tomatoes. Of course the texture is different; the texture will be different (and some say degraded) in canned versions as well. There is no way to preserve a truly fresh tomato!

Overall, I think it just comes down to the space you have and the ways in which you cook. I have talked to a couple of canning and preserving experts who say that they would prefer to freeze more produce, including tomatoes, if they had the freezer space. I have a chest freezer, and little inclination to do a lot of canning, so this works for me. Others have lots of shelf space and a small freezer - so, canning.

Oh, and one last comment: When it comes to fresh tomatoes, though - I am absolutely against refrigeration in any way! If you are using tomatoes fresh, in a salad or any other way, they should be left at room temperature so they don't get mealy or grainy.

I don't know why we have to take the skins off ... a little chewiness isn't such a bad thing!

Anyway, I quarter the tomatoes from my garden, put them in the oven with a little drizzle of olive oil, roast them at 450 until a bit carmelized, pack them into jars (leaving an inch at the top), and pop them into the freezer when cooled. Sometimes I'll add whole garlic cloves while roasting. Yum all winter long. I suppose it can be done without the skins.

If I freeze my tomatoes, can I still use them for canning later?? ( my tomatoes plants just give me a few at a time, no enough to make it worth my while to can till i save more up).