“They are tomatoes. In a tin.” Telegraph, 17 August.
From “Tinned tomatoes: which offer best value for money?” in Telegraph Finance, 17 August 2013. Article by Xanthe Clay.
Jack Monroe. Follow me on Twitter @MsJackMonroe. Find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/agirlcalledjack
A Girl Called Jack is available to order here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Girl-Called-Jack-Monroe/dp/0718178947
Categories: Blog
COOKING ON A BOOTSTRAP 
Quite so, Jack! Tell it how it is.
I agree, if you are counting the pennies go with the cheapest you can get. I agree with the poster about a teaspoon of salt, another alternative if you have it (and I know it’s not exactly a basic) is a drop of balsamic and some seasoning/herbs – really tarts up every cheap tin of toms!
I have never, ever understood why people buy fancy tins of tomatoes for over €1 when there’s other tins with other tomatoes in right next to them for 35c. It’s not like it’ll make a bit of difference. They’re just going in a sauce, like.
it can make a difference in taste and quality and the amount of sugar needed to make them nice. what worries me is BPA’S in tins .
Go Jack! Yes they are indeed tomatoes in a tin. Why pay more?
i pay more [ if/when i can ] for BPA reduced biona tins[ health food shop over here in eire ] or passata in glass jars. not for some brand name .
Brilliant!
LOL!!!
J x
🙂
Love it!
Ladette???
actually i am going to go against the grain and say it does matter,i used to buy the basics/value.smart price ones and there is a big difference between those and the expensive ones,they taste really acidic and have lots of green hard bits in them,completely changes the taste of a dish,BUT i do think if you are on a super tight budget then yeah,there are more important things to worry about and tomatoes are tomatoes.
Have you tried the tinned tomatoes from Lidl? Same price as the Basic/Value ones but just as good as the branded ones you buy in the main supermarkets.
since you mention lidl. i’ve just returned some of their passata in the big xxl packages because it was bitter. it’s not THAT nice anyway but i’ve never had bitter. that worries me.
i find that too to some degree. also i worry about BPAs and if i can buy biona tins or passat in jars.
When we were kids my mum would put a teaspoon of sugar in them & serve us tomatoes on toast. A dash of sugar would also get round the value ones being a bit acidic.
Adding a tsp or so of sugar to a can of tomatoes does much to counteract the acidity, I find. I also like to buy cans of plum tomatoes and then chop them up in the can with a knife, rather than buying pre-chopped tomatoes. The plum tomatoes seem to be slightly better quality and the cost difference is negligible.
while i generally agree that they’re just tomatoes in a tin and wouldn’t o for expensive brands even if i had the money i do have some issues.
because i have some health issues and part of that is a heightened sensetivity to a lot of chemicals, synthetic fragrances ectr i’ve become more careful about what i buy. because of BPA’ i would buy tomatoes by biona from the heathfood shop that promise half the permitted BPA level or passata in glas jars, very expensive and hard to do. sometimes i buy passat at lidl or aldi in these little pouches and they’re not to bad though i’m sure about their BPA levels.
actually recently i bought some of lidl’s 1 liter xxx range passata and had to return them because of bitterness. and that wasn’t just me. other’s could taste it too. my immidiate thought was some sort of cantamination.
so, tomatoes are a bit of a problem in this house just now.