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judydel

What do you call this?

8 years ago

I've been making what I call tomato puree each summer for over 30 years. I'm writing a cookbook and the term puree is up for discussion. Apparently, puree is sold as a much thicker product than what I put up. I don't want to use the term and confuse folks, but I'm not sure what else to call my product. I do remember that many years ago I would buy 1 can of puree and 1 can of whole tomatoes for making my tomato sauce (pasta sauce). I don't remember the puree being super thick back then. Anyway, what I make is basically tomatoes blended and reduced by almost half so that it is just about the consistency of tomato sauce (pasta sauce). I use it as the base for making my marinara sauce or other pasta sauce.


Any thoughts on this topic would be appreciated.

Comments (5)

  • 8 years ago

    I don’t think of purée as being very thick, and is easily poured. I don’t think thickness defines the term, but rather that is food reduced to a fine consistency.

  • 8 years ago

    I'd just call that tomato sauce. Or, maybe reduced tomato sauce. Puree connotes, to me, something that has been run through a blender, regardless of its density. That might be because "puree" is a setting on my electric blender.

  • 8 years ago

    Thanks CA, glad to see we are thinking alike.

    Matthias, I actually make my puree in a high speed blender - it does a fine job of blending up the seeds and skins. Before I had a high speed blender, I used to remove the skins and seeds before reducing the tomatoes.

  • 8 years ago

    Isn't it intriguing the way we all define terms so differently? For me tomato puree has a much thicker consistency than tomato sauce. My sauce will pour easily, my puree will not but instead sort of slowly plops out in large clots. Not as thick as tomato paste which you have to spoon out of the container.

    Cooking Light defines puree as tomato puree - is a thick sauce of pureed, briefly cooked tomatoes that have been strained of seeds and skins.

    To avoid confusion I think I would use the term tomato sauce instead of puree.

    Dave

  • 8 years ago

    Judy, that consistency is what I remember tomato "puree" being too, it was a little thicker than today's commercially available tomato sauce. Today, though, "puree" seems to be thicker, not as thick as tomato paste but thicker than tomato sauce.

    I'm going to agree with Dave, I'd call your product tomato sauce.

    Annie