What tomatoes are best for canning: we talk about three main criteria

Preserving food for the winter is one of the main activities of housewives in the summer. To ensure that the products are stored throughout the winter and do not harm the body, you should be careful when choosing them.

FoodOboz.ua figured out how to choose the right tomatoes for canning. As it turned out, there are three main criteria for choosing tomatoes for canning.

Ripeness of tomatoes

It is believed that tomatoes sold on a twig are the freshest. But in reality, this is just a common myth. The presence of a stalk in tomatoes indicates that they are not ripe, because a ripe fruit should fall off the branch on its own.

Indeed, tomatoes have the ability to ripen after being plucked from a branch. However, in this case, they still contain the poison solanine, which the fruit would not have been deprived of if it had remained on the branch until it was ripe. Therefore, tomatoes for canning should be chosen without a stem.

Flavor.

Tomatoes are a plant that is quite sensitive to various natural factors. Breeders have to go through various manipulations to make tomatoes more resistant. Because of this, the fruit loses its flavor and becomes, as people say, "plastic".

In order not to come across such tomatoes, you should simply smell them. Tomatoes that have been "worked on" by breeders will not have the pronounced sweet and sour smell that these vegetables grown in the garden have. So, you should choose tomatoes that were not grown for mass sale.

Nitrates

Tomato is the only plant that cannot be completely rid of nitrates while maintaining its freshness. Tomatoes that contain high amounts of nitrates will be elastic but not hard. If you press on the fruit, there will be no fingerprint.

Several tomatoes that are fused or irregularly shaped tomatoes are all "victims" of the harmful effects of nitrates and should be avoided. You should also pay attention to the appearance of the tomatoes. They should not have gray, or dark or gray spots, cracks, or signs of rot.