If you've been seeding your tomatoes before using them in your cooking, we have news for you: maybe you should stop. Or so says America's Test Kitchen host Chris Kimball in his new book on the science of cooking. So what's wrong with seeding tomatoes? Find out below:
According to Kimball as recently told to NPR's The Salt:
It turns out the seed in [the tomato] jelly ... has three times more flavor compounds called glutamates than the flesh, so when you seed the tomato... you're actually throwing out most of the flavor.
So while you might get a smoother soup (that much is true), it won't be as tasty! Glutamate proteins, if you remember, are what give tomatoes their umami taste and feel. As the Umami Information Center writes regarding tomatoes:
Of the many plant foods that provide umami in western tradition, the tomato is foremost. Its attractive, full, rounded 'meaty' flavour comes from its heavy load of glutamates, and this flavour is reinforced by its unique crimson colour, the colour of blood which is the very essence of animal life.
Interesting! Have you noticed a difference in flavor in seeded vs. unseeded tomatoes?
For more on the science of cooking (and other myths debunked) check out The Salt's article below, and The Science of Good Cooking ($24.40).
Read More: Making 'The Science of Good Cooking' Look Easy | The Salt
Related: Too Many Tomatoes? Make Tomato Paste
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I never really understood why people did this unless making something very refined. I like the feel of tomato seeds, as well as the taste.
Same here. For even my authentic Italian tomato sauce. I don't remove the seeds as I prefer the taste with them.
If I'm making a sauce, I'll use the whole tomato and run it through a food mill: you get the gel, but not the seeds. If I'm making a fresh salsa (pico de gallo, xni pec, etc.), I'll seed them, because otherwise it gets too watery. Rick Bayless' suggestion for seeding is to cut the tomato on its equator, and squeeze: this lets the seeds escape out of the capsules. It's not 100% reliable, but it's a good start.
For a braise or other rustic dish where there will be other pieces and bits, the seeds can stay.
People seed tomatoes?
I always thought the instruction of seeding tomatoes was pointless and wasteful and completely ignored it in recipes.
Never seeded my tomatoes. I found out all by miyself that this part has the more flavor than the flesh. They don't bother me in sauces either.
I always push the seeds and the gel out- because they don't add to the flavor and also because I save the seeds to plant next year. The gel is just watery and sour anyway.
I'd imagine if people are seeding their tomatos it's because they want to. So leave em alone!
I can't thin of a time when I have removed the seeds from my tomatoes ... I rarely even go through the effort to peel them. If the pulp has a bit of bitterness to it, I add a pinch or two of sugar and go on with my cooking. Of course, I prefer more rustic dishes and simple, wholesome cooking rather than fussy, "fancy" dishes.
I seed tomatoes when they're going on a sandwich and I don't want the sogginess. It grosses me out when I get a nice sandwich somewhere and it has watery tomato squishing down the side. Bleh.
I never seed tomatoes. I find it wasteful and don't mind the added texture. When making a homemade tomato sauce I simmer so it will reduce and make a thicker sauce.
I have heard that seeds in tomato sauce and salsa turn it bitter, but I am willing to give it a try!
Thank you for validating my laziness!
Depends on what it is for but I tend to seed tomatoes sometimes like for salads. Sometimes they are unfortunately just to watery and it can make certain dishes watered town and less taste. I don't dislike the seeds though, just certain applications.
I have never once seeded a tomato.
I agree with akay, in that I'll seed tomatoes for sandwiches. Other than that I leave the tomatoes as they are. As a matter of fact, if I'm cutting up tomatoes for sauce and there's a bit of the "seedy gel" left on the board I consider that cook's treats.
Ok, lol, my curiousity has gotten the better of me. I gotta know...for those of you who prefer this, what's the point? I recall as a young child, accompanying my g-ma to visit her eldest son each summer. My aunt (in-law) always had a plate of fresh-from-the-garden, *seeded & peeled* sun-warmed tomatoes on the table. I once asked (aloud, at the dinner table, in my youthful ingornace) "why do they look & taste funny?" G-ma immediate shussed me & later privately explained that aunt 'didn't know any better' as she was a city girl.
Looking back, I'm sure g-ma was properly horrified by my outburst. Aunt either didn't hear, or pretended she didn't. In any event, inquiring minds [still] want to know. Never did get a specifc answer to my question...
Discerning, it is so funny that your grandmother told you the city girl seeded and peeled tomatoes as the only person I ever knew who pealed and seeded tomatoes was my grandmother who was born and raised on a farm. I have never seeded or pealed a tomato. Those are my favorite parts.