Do You Have to Peel Tomatoes

Here’s the obvious one: Tiny tomatoes don’t need to be peeled. Large heirloom varieties, with their tender skin, don’t need peeling either. Hearty beefsteaks and those varieties bred for canning (such as plum or roma) have a pretty thick skin that wouldn’t be welcomed in smooth sauces or soups.

Do you have to peel the skin off tomatoes for sauce?

The tomato skin is a different texture from the tomato flesh, and will remain so in sauces and purées—you’ll get tiny chunks of skin instead of an uniformly smooth mixture. Moreover, the tomato skin is heavy in a kind of nutrient called flavonols, which impart a bitter flavor. … Then you probably want to peel them.

Can you leave the skins on tomatoes when you can them?

Tomato skins can be tough and bitter, so it’s nice — but not necessary — to remove them from tomatoes to be canned. … Peel off the skins as soon as the tomatoes are cool enough to handle and discard the skin. (I use a cooler filled with ice to stop the cooking and hold the tomatoes as they come out of the boiling water.)