Cease Letting Excellent Tomatoes Go to Waste—Do This As a substitute

The tomato dilemma is actual: You purchase a haul of fantastically ripe summer season tomatoes, rigorously transport them dwelling with no single one getting bumped and bruised, then set them out on a counter to eat over the following few days. However earlier than you have managed to take pleasure in all of them, there are indicators of wrinkling and collapse. It is the unending rigidity between two very true issues: Ripe, summer season tomatoes are the most effective tomatoes (some would say solely tomatoes), and ripe summer season tomatoes teeter on the precipice of a surprisingly speedy decline.

What to do? Properly, as controversial as it’s, you’ll be able to put tomatoes on the brink within the fridge: We have carried out the assessments, and it’s by far the preferable choice to interrupt down and decay. However there’s one other factor you are able to do first, and it helps stave off untimely tomato dying, shopping for you time to truly take pleasure in these beautiful summer season fruit: Retailer them stem-side down.

That is as a result of the stem finish is a weak level in an in any other case well-contained little package deal. Tomato skins, whereas skinny, are good at protecting juices locked contained in the fruit. However the round scar the place the stem was as soon as hooked up is sort of a wound: As soon as picked from the plant, a tomato quickly loses moisture by means of the stem scar, turning a as soon as juicy tomato into an more and more dry, wrinkled shell of its former self. 

By storing tomatoes the other way up, the scar is blocked, which slows moisture loss and helps them keep plump and juicy longer. You possibly can even go one step additional by masking the scar with a bit of tape to lock in much more of the tomato’s water. It is a technique many cooks use, and one which former editor Kenji has proven to work: In his testing, Kenji discovered that tomatoes saved stem aspect down for 3 days misplaced simply 1 to 2% of their weight, whereas fruit saved proper aspect up misplaced as much as 7%. That could possibly be the distinction between a tomato bursting with juice and one which’s shriveled up. 

So the following time you come dwelling with a basket of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes from the market, do your self a favor and take a second to place them correctly, stem aspect down. You will not get rid of the nice tomato dilemma, however you’ll cut back it.