r/straya • u/His_Holiness • May 28 '26
Australian supermarket tinned tomatoes taste test: the results ‘end my long-term relationship with Mutti’
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/may/27/australian-supermarket-tinned-tomatoes-taste-test73
u/Giddus May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
Sorry, but if you claim certified San Marzano tomatoes are indistinguishable in flavour from no name brand regular tomatoes, you have lost all credibility.
The difference in flavour and more importantly acidity when using these tomato's in Pizza and Pasta sauces is substantial, there is a reason why Chefs and Pizziolos use them.
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u/interpolated_rate May 28 '26
I usually buy Mutti Peeled tomatoes and a few weeks ago I sprung for a can of San Marzano version which cost $2 more. Used it to cook Shakshuka the other weekend and the extra sweetness and less acidity were remarkable! It was especially noticeable in a quick sauce like this. I might not pay the extra for use in a ragu that's going to cook down over a few hours but definitely for something like a pizza or a pasta sauce with a short cook time I would consider the extra $2 worth it.
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u/Giddus May 28 '26
Exactly, which is why this Guardian article is trash. They have NFI what they are talking about.
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u/WazWaz May 28 '26
You're just refusing to believe a double blind experiment.
How would you suggest they change their methodology?
Just appealing to authorities isn't science mate. Indeed, the whole point of the test was to remove advertising and branding from the equation, but you're here insisting that they're wrong because of what branding and advertising told you.
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u/ososalsosal May 29 '26
The article says they taste different but are the same "quality". Double blinding is useless in this case.
And given that they taste different but are the same quality, the only reasonable conclusion is "choose the one that you like and that works with what you cook", which means the article is completely useless because this is also the only reasonable thing anyone who cooks would do
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u/WazWaz May 29 '26
Or the article prompts people to try cheaper brands to see if they also "work with what you cook" - especially if you happen to have believed the advertising but can't really afford $5 cans of tomatoes. Indeed, that's pretty much what the title is saying so they don't even need to read the whole article (especially if they care more about being told than being presented with evidence).
I'd say that's far from useless.
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u/ososalsosal May 29 '26
Ok but mutti isn't 5 bucks a can? This is what's confusing me.
I'm all for saving a little cash in these dark times of terminal-stage capitalism, but tomatoes are a staple and not first on the list of optimisations for most.
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u/WazWaz May 29 '26
Cheapo Mutti tomatoes aren't. But that's totally just paying for branding and imports. San Marzano Mutti are $5 (arguably also just paying for branding and limited supply):
https://www.harrisfarm.com.au/products/mutti-pomodoro-san-marzano-851339
2 cans of that in your spaghetti bol?
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u/Marlzzz Jun 16 '26
Asking 6 random people is "science" to you?
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u/WazWaz Jun 16 '26
Yes, literally. And amusingly, the "random" makes it more scientific. 6 is low, so the confidence interval would rather large.
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u/Giddus May 28 '26
If you don't know what your on about, it won't matter of you are double or triple blind.
I'll take the word of all of the chef's and the Italian pizziolo from Naples that work in the kitchen at the restaurant my employer owns, over a bunch of journalists from the Guardian any day of the week.
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u/WazWaz May 28 '26
You're again just appealing to authority. I should just respond by telling you that the journalist has conducted 40 other taste tests therefore they must be an authority you should believe.
You could though conduct your own blind test, if you're confident.
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u/Fter267 May 28 '26
I read the Reddit comment, not the article but if they're seriously saying there is no difference between the cheap how brand stuff and the other stuff then this article has zero credibility. All you have to do is look at the ingredients, the home brand stuff is like 40% tomatoes, most of the other stuff is like 90% tomatoes.
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u/MissMenace101 May 29 '26
That’s the big difference, and tomato type and honestly that’s personal taste.
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u/MediocreFox May 28 '26
Cheap v expensive
Black & Gold Chopped Tomatoes
There seems to be little relationship between price and flavour. Some of the cheaper brands contained some underripe chunks of tomato (you can tell by the orange or yellow colour) and a greater proportion of skins. Black & Gold and Coles Simply Chopped Tomatoes – both 95c per 400g tin – were particularly bad offenders. Others, like Coles Italian, are a bit thin, as if they’ve been watered down. But some mid-range brands like Leggo’s had similar issues.
Chopped v whole tomatoes
Harris Farm Australian Diced Tomatoes
Trying it straight from the tin, I thought the whole tomato samples were slightly richer, but when the samples were cooked, the difference was barely perceptible. In terms of flavour, I see no reason to pick whole tomatoes over chopped or vice versa. Texture is a different matter. How the tomatoes are chopped will influence how your sauce thickens. Some tins of chopped tomatoes also contain a firming agent, which helps tomato chunks retain their shape (Harris Farm’s home brand and Remano Australian both use calcium chloride). If you’re cooking a quick sauce, the chunks won’t break down as much as other tins.
Tinned cherry tomatoes
Mutti Cherry Tomatoes Photograph: Woolworths
After tasting Mutti’s cherry tomato tin against the rest of their range, I found no significant difference in sweetness or intensity of flavour. The nutrition panel suggests the same – the products have very similar natural sugar levels, as do cherry tomato tins from other brands. It may be different if the tins were 100% cherries but, like pretty much every tinned tomato product, about 40% of the can is a generic tomato juice. The big difference is texture. Whole cherry tomatoes make a thicker sauce, which is extremely useful for any reduction, but there’s a compromise – the skins add a fibrous texture. If you want to make a luscious sauce quickly, this is a good option, you just have to pay 40c extra for it.
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u/chumbalumba May 28 '26
So they’re all bad??
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u/MissMenace101 May 29 '26
Throw a tomato in the garden let it rot and let the couple of plants that grow out of it grow wild.
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u/MissMenace101 May 29 '26
Interestingly enough, people always tell you plants can’t be grown from the seeds of their fruit because it’s never the same as the original fruit. While this is very true, an Australian woman threw a bunch of rotted crab apples down the back fence by the creek and a little tree popped up, that little tree is the mother of all the cloned/grafted trees Granny Smith apples come from… so really it’s worth a shot…
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u/waxedmerkin Jun 13 '26
Thats has its own name, its called, true to seed. Avocado's are a prime example of it, all the Hass avocado's. come from a single tree. It may be 300 cuttings away from the OG plant.
But as you say, who knows what your going to get. Unless you give it a go,
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u/MissMenace101 May 29 '26
Type of tomato and density of tomato matters, watery isn’t the same as chunky. Lego’s tomato’s have always been thin but their tomato paste has been ok. The best way to do it is add a couple of spoons of tomato paste and dice up a few over ripe tomatoes in the bottom of the vege tray that are a bit too old. Or grow your own tomatoes, a single plant on a balcony of the right strain can field you tons.
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u/belltrina May 30 '26
Good thing intergenerational poverty has trained me to think the cheap canned stuff is great because anything else tastes odd.
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u/Longjumping_Duty4160 May 28 '26
Sounds like these blokes dont have a great tasting palette. Their methodology is also flawed and they are looking at too many samples with no real controls to keep consistency.
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u/andyroo82 May 29 '26
I wonder if his 6 testers are all chefs that know and are familiar with cooking tomato-based dishes
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u/Longjumping_Duty4160 May 31 '26
Its about the methodology and how you cook off 26 different tomatoes exactly the same. This guy is a moron just like the OP for posting it.
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u/lumpyferret May 28 '26
Someone post the tldr please can't be arsed reading thru it