Crushing Canned Whole Tomatoes
If you’re making sloppy joes (or chili) (or anything else for that matter) and you’re using whole canned tomatoes but you don’t want them in their whole form because they would be too big that way and you decide to crush them with your hands to break them into smaller pieces, be careful!! They’re apt to burst open like water balloons and spray juice all over the place, including all over your shirt. So wear an apron. Or, better yet, go ahead and put the whole tomatoes into the pot and then use your spoon to break them up as you stir them around.
February 6th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
forget my clothes…in my experience goggles and a shower or swim cap are helpful to wear when using my hands to split them.
February 6th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Does this mean that you had a bit of a problem with tomatoes? A few years ago I decided to just stock diced tomatoes on my pantry shelf. They have a good fresh flavor and you don’t have to break them up.
February 6th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
I use an immersion blender right in the jar/can.
February 8th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
You can use a pair of scissors to snip them while they’re still in the can. This is less messy, and won’t pulverize them the same way a stick blender will.
I’ve found that the diced or crushed tomatoes don’t seem to taste quite as fresh as the whole ones - I’d assume they use the already damaged ones for those.
February 11th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
I have a maple bowl and a round chopper (sort of like a mezzaluna) that I use for chopping canned tomatoes (I also use them for chopping hardboiled eggs, nuts, and a few other things). I’ve found it’s the best way to chop without losing any liquid, and I can control the size of the pieces really well.
BTW, you can avoid the splattering if you crush them by hand by stabbing a little hole in each tomato before you squish it.
February 12th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I love when they burst like a water balloon! It’s the best part of cooking with them.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:21 am
If you have a decent potato masher (not a ricer, just a masher) then that works pretty well to mush them up into smaller pieces- just put them in a bowl and mash.
I’ve also done the scissors/knife in can trick mentioned in another comment.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
This may be an old wives tale, and it sounds a little nuts but I read somewhere long ago that tomatoes thicken naturally when they’re cooked whole, so where the dish allows I always put them in whole, go through the simmer cycle and fish them out and snip them with scissors before doing whatever comes next.
If you want a sauce and not bits of tomato, though, a recent Cook’s Illustrated tells me it’s faster and just as good to buy a good brand of crushed tomatoes. They specifically mentioned Muir Glen Fire Roasted, which I mention only to illustrate that “good brand” doesn’t need to mean an $8 can from Italy.