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Post by horsea on Aug 29, 2016 9:31:59 GMT -5
Couple of yr. ago, Timothyt posted:
But for sauce and most other cooking purposes I prefer meaty heart tomatoes over "paste types" as they have more flavor.
I do not think I have ever grown a heart tomato but I have grown meaty, low-seed beefsteak heirlooms, mostly "Rose" (seeds from Johnny's years ago), which is incredibly tasty, right up there with the socalled "black" types.
Can anyone opine as to why anyone would bother, then, with paste types? Just wondering this fine morning...I grew Cow's Tit last year (& again this year) and was pleased with their strangeness; they command attention in the garden, I'd say.
While I'm here, last year my Wessel's Purple [?] Pride toms were dark, almost mahogany most of them. But this year, so far, as of today, there are several ripened ones on the vine and they are a bright reddish orange. Nary a "purple" or at least deep intense red one to be found.
What the hey...
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Aug 29, 2016 13:43:33 GMT -5
I think the heart toms are superior for cooking, too. I've only grown a few heart varieties so far, but they have all tasted excellent.
Hearts are not just superior in flavor but they tend to be large and have small seed cavities and few seeds - they are almost all meat. The "paste" types I have grown have had more gel and seeds in proportion to their meat than the hearts. Plus, the hearts I have grown have been bigger fruits, so there's less processing work to get a batch of sauce.
The problem with hearts in my case is that I have yet to find a heart that produces well for me - I don't think they like the heat and humidity here. (Then again, paste production has been hit or miss for me, too.)
Although there are some indeterminate paste varieties, many paste tomatoes are determinate. The concentrated harvest from determinates is more convenient for processing. All of the hearts I've seen have been indeterminate, so their harvest is spread out over time. With the low production I typically get from hearts, I'd need a lot of plants to get enough ripe fruit at the same time for processing.
In short, if I can ever find a tasty heart that produces well for me I will grow it for sauce and probably forget pastes. In the meantime, I make sauce from a combination of whatever suitable tomatoes I have - hearts, pastes, and the meatier kinds of beefsteaks.
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Post by paulf on Aug 29, 2016 16:06:16 GMT -5
Laura: What a shame you do not have success with hearts. So far this year, and most other years as well, heart shaped tomatoes ARE our best producers AND have the best flavor. We have heat and humidity, but not for as long as you. Vacationed on St. Georges Island one year and I could hardly stand it and that was for a week. That's also why we do not visit our condo in Melbourne Beach in the summer. I always thought Nebraska/Iowa was hot and humid.
We gave up on growing paste style tomatoes because the varieties with the best flavor made the best tomato products and their large size...like you said. As to the production and timing, we just mix up the varieties rather than have all one in a batch. Makes it easier still.
This year and last year my favorite variety has not been a heart. The variety Kolb has won my heart so to speak. Very meaty, large sized and the most productive in the garden. But after that one comes about thirty hearts.
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Post by coppice on Aug 30, 2016 3:34:46 GMT -5
For taste hearts might just edge out better pastes. That said, the better cows-horn pastes like Cows-tit or Gilbertie produce more tomato that are suitably yummy.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 31, 2016 0:18:31 GMT -5
One thing is that there are hearts and oxhearts and they are not always the same. A lot of heart varieties are ordinary slicers shaped like a heart but full of seeds and juice. Oxhearts are always meaty with their few seeds located in locules close to the edges. If I had a lot of sauce to make, I would definitely take those over paste or regular hearts.
Martin
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Post by horsea on Aug 31, 2016 0:26:02 GMT -5
I've never grown ox hearts. What variety do you recommend, and are they tastier than the "black" toms? Beefsteak "Rose" also has hardly any seeds and my God, is this a fine tomato.
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Post by paulf on Aug 31, 2016 20:46:27 GMT -5
I have a slightly different take on hearts and oxhearts than Paquebot. Since there are several hundred tomato varieties considered to be heart-shaped or oxhearts, I think the terms are interchangeable. Some called oxheart and some are called heart-shaped. Some are exactly as Paquebot says. Some are called oxheart and tend to be how he describes hearts. Some hearts are as he describes oxhearts.
Most of the hearts or oxhearts I have grown are solid, meaty with fewer seeds and locules than beefsteaks. Maybe I have not grown enough hearts (oxhearts) to make a distinction, but counting this season my number is around 100 varieties and I think it is in the name only not as two separate forms. Maybe I'd better pay more attention and then I can apologize for being contrary. Just my opinion with nothing but memory (sometimes faulty in my old age) to guide my statements.
Not an argument, just how I remember it. And still, I never met a heart, or oxheart I didn't like.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 31, 2016 22:19:31 GMT -5
This opening paragraph is what I based my reply on. "Meaty hearts" are oxheart type, not beefsteaks with a pointed bottom. There is a big difference when it comes to "cooking purposes".
Martin
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Post by paulf on Sept 1, 2016 9:26:08 GMT -5
And I agree whole 'heartedly'. I even like meaty beefsteaks. Paste types are a waste of space so far as I am concerned.
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Post by horsea on Sept 1, 2016 15:59:38 GMT -5
Paste types are a waste of space so far as I am concerned.It is true what you say, but for sheer prolificness, I am going to continue with growing Cow's Tit.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 1, 2016 17:38:33 GMT -5
Other than my own Paquebot Roma, Cow's Tit is the only paste type that I grew 3 times. It has so few seeds and could never save enough to supply the demand from my forum offers. Would be better if it were a less sprawling monster but then the production would not be there. A comparable variety is Andes Horn/Andine Cornue.
Regarding oxheart vs. heart, the former are generally oblate rather than round. That is how a real animal's heart is shaped. I've grown perhaps 35-40 and haven't found one that I didn't like.
Martin
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Post by horsea on Sept 3, 2016 12:41:40 GMT -5
A comparable variety is Andes Horn/Andine Cornue.
I grew Andes Cornue one year and found it tasted bland.
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