When you’re in the grocery aisle holding A pair of tomatoes in your hand, maybe one’s red, like the kind you’ve always known; maybe it’s stripy, or pale yellow, or deep purple… You’re thinking: Did I make the right selection? And you pause.
It makes sense that you would, since we’ve grown up believing there’s only one tomato, a red one. And only one type of tomato, which suit sauces and sandwiches. But that’s wrong. Tomatoes comes in so many more varieties than just red (and they taste so much better).
How to Choose the Right Tomato
Breaking the tomatoes down visually divides the kinds by flavor and color. It demonstrates that the chemicals within the tomato produce the color. When you spot a red one, you are seeing high amounts of lycopene. This is the stuff responsible for its heady, acidic cookout taste. A black- or purple-hued tomato contain anthocyanins, the same molecules that create the rich, smokiness that complements fatty, cured meats.
In short: You’re selecting a molecule. This is why it’s important to understand what you’re eating; it will determine how you incorporate that ingredient into your own dishes.
This image is courtesy of the Heirloom Tomato Varieties Poster.
Red tomatoes are the default fruit of many home cooks, tossed into salads, turned into sauce, or eaten as snacks. That’s a missed opportunity. According to the data, orange types tends to have higher brix, the measure of their sugar content. So they’re not just fruitier (of course) but also sweeter, making them good for fresh uses where you want a fruity flavor with less sharpness than usual tomato acidity.
A high-acid tomato may overpower a basic salad; a high-sugar one may be to sweet in a slow-cooked sauce. Good cooking matches the chemistry of food to the dish.
What about the overlooked layer of complexity of the green tomato? Some green tomatoes never turn red; they’re all the way ripe but still green. In a salad, it has its own special spicy-sweet finish. It’s also low in lycopene, as the infographic points out, signaling a different nutritional and flavor path. There’s an herbal delicacy there. A green tomato doesn’t want to be treated as just a regular tomato; otherwise you’ll be sadly disappointed. It wants to be handled as carefuly as you would a fresh herb.
Most sandwiches has a sweet spot of lower acid and a creamy texture. That means pink tomatoes work well in a BLT (or any burger where you want the tomato to blend into other flavors rather than stand out). Moderate Lycopene Levels Between the milder yellows and the bolder reds, this middle ground is practical and versatile, but not so intense that it dominates a more delicate dish.
White and ivory tomatoes are most tender of them all. They are mild and buttery. They do not have the earthiness of the purple ones and have no punch like their red cousins. They have a subtle sweetness and are good with robust cheeses such as feta or used in vinaigrette.
Why? Because they don’t stand out visually so you overlook them. They are not bland; instead, they are refined. They allow for flavors of the other items in the dish to stand out.
That’s what it does: it removes the guessing from cooking. Instead of thinking of a tomato as an interchangeable item, you begin to think of it as a tool, a specific tool. For sauce, you select the red. For salsa, you select the orange. For a fancy slice, you select the purple. And it becomes about intent.
Next time you’re staring down at those colorful fruits, you’ll know exactly which one to pick. No longer are you simply picking a tomato; you’re selecting a flavor experience. You should of known how much better they taste.