February 18, 2025: Pasty Bastard

I don't have any great suggestions, but something needs to be done about tomato paste cans. I usually only need a couple of tablespoons every few months, but those little cans it comes in have way more than that with no good way to save the rest for later uses.

Hmm, maybe there are glass jars out there with screw tops. I'll have to look for those next time. Well, thanks for solving my problem!

12 thoughts on “February 18, 2025: Pasty Bastard”

      1. More per ounce until you factor in some tubed brands are double or triple concentrated!

        I have read that the tubed varieties of Italian origin are cooked at a lower temperature for longer, which would suggest a more nuanced, brighter flavor. I prefer tubed for the prevention of oxidation alone (I rarely use 6 oz of paste in a recipe!), but I do think there’s a flavor difference that weeds out a bunch of the regular supermarket canned varieties.

        That said, I never measure tomato paste precisely, and I put in roughly the same amount of double concentrated as a recipe will call for if it just says “tomato paste.”

    1. Also seems like you have to remove stuff from an opened can container - there must be some oxidation effect, cause whatever you got left tastes like tin can in a day or two.

      1. Ironically, I went with canned diced tomatoes instead, though considering the paste made me think of this (and I noticed the tubes in the grocery store today; I'll definitely get that next time). Agreed on the taste, so since it was a large can and I only used half, I plopped the rest into a Bell jar. Not as easy a transfer with the paste.

  1. In a similar vein, I get very annoyed about recipes that use only part of a can of pumpkin. Typically I can scale up to use the whole thing. (But with tomato paste, I'm also a fan of the squeeze tube.)

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