Now, the tomatoes and strawberries sold on the market don't taste as good as traditional varieties. Many people lament the loss of these excellent varieties with their pure flavor. But do you know why today's tomatoes aren't as tasty?
Tomatoes – Sacrificing Flavor for Storage
Since the 1970s, the tomatoes sold in markets in Europe and America have been products that are brightly colored, firm, and have lost their unique flavor. These are new varieties bred for easy transportation, storage, and higher yields. With the rapid development of supermarkets, growers in our country have also introduced these new varieties.
Generally speaking, a tasty tomato must be a variety with high sugar content (glucose and fructose) and a well-balanced sweet and sour taste. However, high-yielding tomato plants cannot provide enough sugar for their fruit, which is a major reason why the new varieties of tomatoes have lost their good taste.
To determine other factors affecting tomato flavor, Harry Klee of the University of Florida grew 152 different old varieties of tomatoes, varying in size, shape, and color, in experimental fields and greenhouses. He sliced the fruit from these old varieties and bought new varieties from the supermarket for 170 volunteers to taste carefully. Then, Klee asked them to evaluate them based on texture, sweetness, acidity, bitterness, and overall flavor, and to rank their preference for each variety. The results showed that the volunteers not only liked tomatoes with high sugar content but also those with low sugar content. Therefore, the level of sugar content cannot fully explain people's preferences for tomato flavor.
When tomatoes are cut and eaten, the volatile compounds that drift into the nose also affect people's taste buds. Therefore, Klee analyzed and identified the volatile compounds in tomatoes for three years. He found that among the large number of volatile compounds with six carbon atoms, only the moderately volatile geranial was the key component affecting tomato flavor. This experimental result shows that geranial can change the taste of tomatoes. Compared to old varieties, new varieties of tomatoes contain very low levels of geranial and other volatile substances, which is another important reason why new varieties of tomatoes do not taste good.
How to Choose Tomatoes
1. The redder the color, the better: This refers to naturally ripened tomatoes, not artificially ripened ones. Because the redder the tomato, the more mature it is, the more fully developed it is, and therefore the tastier it is.
2. Identify artificially ripened red tomatoes: To get to market early or to sell better, some merchants artificially ripen tomatoes. This means the tomatoes are not fully developed and do not taste good. There are several ways to identify artificially ripened tomatoes. First, the shape: artificially ripened tomatoes are not round, often appearing prism-shaped. Second, the internal structure: break the tomato open to check. Artificially ripened tomatoes have less juice, no seeds, or the seeds are green. Naturally ripened tomatoes are juicy, have red flesh, and the seeds are earthy yellow. Third, the taste: artificially ripened tomatoes have hard, tasteless flesh and astringent texture, while naturally ripened ones are sweet and sour with a balanced taste.
3. Round shape, thin skin, and firm texture are better: First, pick tomatoes that are round in shape; those that are prism-shaped or have spots on the skin are not as good. Then, gently squeeze the tomato. A good tomato has a thin skin, is springy to the touch, and feels firm, not soft.
4. A small circle at the bottom (calyx) is better: Many tomatoes grown in greenhouses have a lot of internal fibers and are not very tasty. You can observe the bottom of the tomato (the calyx). If the circle is small, it means there are fewer fibers, more moisture, and fuller flesh, making it tastier. Tomatoes with a large circle at the bottom have more fibers and are not as tasty.
5. It is not advisable to eat completely green tomatoes: Completely green tomatoes are not ripe and contain solanine. Eating a large amount can cause discomfort symptoms such as nausea in the human body. However, if most of the tomato's surface is red and only a small part is slightly green, it is fine.