Tinned tomatoes - meals coming out watery

glider3560

Can anyone help me.

I cook lots of things (chilli, curries and spag bol etc) with tinned tomatoes. I used to use the Value/Smartprice type, but now buy the premium ones.

All the meals I cook taste good and are thick when in the pot cooking. But as soon as I let them stand, a watery later appears on top of the sauce. Similarly, when I put the meal on top of rice or spaghetti, the water seeps through to the plate.

It definitely isn't the rice or spaghetti, as this layer forms in the pot.

Cam anyone suggest anything I'm doing wrong(!). I've tried cooking for much longer but still get this watery layer.

Purplesky_2

Four things come to mind.

If you're buying supermarket meat, are you sealing it properly? I.e putting it in a hot pan and letting it go brown first. A lot of supermarket meat is bulked up with ridiculous amounts of water.

Second, are you sufficiently reducing the sauce? About 20 mins is pretty standard for me when simmering.

Third, have you tried whole plum tomatoes, tinned and draining them first? (You can always add water back in, after all!)

Fourth, if this is a new problem, why not go back to the previous tins? I always buy the value stuff, rarely pay more than 33p and never have this problem. Just because they're charging premium prices doesn't mean it's a superior product!

MandM90

Definitely give plum tomatoes a try - you get much more tomato for your money IMO! All you have to do is break the whole tomatoes up with your spoon whilst in the pot.

It might sound obvious, but when you simmer it, are you leaving the lid off to let the water vapour escape?

splishsplash

What are you using to thicken the sauce? If your basic recipe is just onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, celery, herbs and meat, then there's nothing to thicken it.
Reducing it by a third in a wide faced pan will help, but you will still need to add something to soak up the wateriness.
For example, my bolognese sauce might be a bit watery if I'm using it for lasagne but if I make chilli with the remainder, the kidney beans thicken it so no more wateriness.

I add pureed courgettes and/or potatoes and I find that thickens it well. If I didn't have any at hand, I would cook the sauce first and blitz it, then add the cooked meat and reduce a bit.
I don't add carrots to a tomato sauce as they are too watery.
I know others add lentils to sauces to thicken; I don't as I don't like the taste or texture, but they might work for you.
I also never make sauces in the slow cooker as they can't reduce properly.

NoGoodNamesLeft

If it's just the tomato flavour you want rather than the chunky texture, try passata instead and see if that helps. A carton is usually cheaper than a tin of tomatoes too.

Pollycat

NoGoodNamesLeft wrote: »

If it's just the tomato flavour you want rather than the chunky texture, try passata instead and see if that helps. A carton is usually cheaper than a tin of tomatoes too.

This is a good suggestion.

You could also try adding some tomato puree.

glider3560

Thanks all, will try what has been suggested.

I did use passatta for a period of time, but noticed the supermarket own brands contained more salt than tinned tomatoes (1.3g in half a carton, compared to 0.01g in half a tin of tomatoes). With the recommended daily amount being 6g, I found this to be rather high for a home cooked meal.

Pollycat

glider3560 wrote: »

Thanks all, will try what has been suggested.

I did use passatta for a period of time, but noticed the supermarket own brands contained more salt than tinned tomatoes (1.3g in half a carton, compared to 0.01g in half a tin of tomatoes). With the recommended daily amount being 6g, I found this to be rather high for a home cooked meal.

OMG! :eek:

That's a massive difference!

glider3560

Pollycat wrote: »

OMG! :eek:

That's a massive difference!

That's in Tesco. Asda used to be similar, but I just checked their website and it is now listed as "trace" in both the Smart Price and standard Asda brands.

Sainsbury's is 1.03g per half carton. Napolina is 0.30g per half carton. Morrisons is also trace.

Surprising how much this varies between stores. But for someone trying to reduce salt intake, it almost defeats the point of making your own meals!

cutestkids

I have just checked the passatta that I have in my cupboard at the moment and the one from Aldi does indeed have added salt. I have a carton from Morrisons as well which only lists tomatoes on the ingredients and shows as trace for salt content. The Morrisons one is about 25p more expensive than the Aldi one though.

Brambleberry

I have an old OOD (2013!) tub of McDougalls thickening granules in my cupboard from my splurgier days and if, despite simmering, I have a watery sauce on a tight timescale - a teaspoon of the granules usually does the trick.

They essentially do the same job as slaked cornflour which I would also use if I'm in less of a hurry.