How long to cook tomatoes to remove the skin. How to peel tomatoes. How to remove seeds from tomatoes

The recipes for many dishes include peeled tomatoes. This is due to the fact that the peel not only gives a bitter aftertaste and spoils the uniformity of dishes, but is also capable of rolling and sticking in the mouth, worsening the digestion process. That is why every housewife should know a few tricks for quickly peeling tomatoes.

How to peel tomatoes by blanching

This method not only helps to get rid of the peel, but also helps prevent infection by harmful microorganisms and worm eggs. Therefore, blanching is predominantly used in catering establishments, kindergartens and schools.
How to do it:

Make a cross-shaped cut in the tomatoes.
Place the tomatoes in a sieve and pour boiling water over them.
Remove the peel by pulling the corners.

How to peel tomatoes using the “warm to cold” method

This method is used to peel medium-ripe, firm tomatoes that are difficult to blanch.

How to do this:

Bring the water in the pan to a boil and remove it from the heat.
Meanwhile, cut the skin of the tomatoes crosswise on one side.
Dip the prepared specimens into boiling water and keep them there for 20-30 seconds.
As soon as the edges of the peel curl slightly, pull the tomatoes out of the hot water and immediately immerse them in a container of cold water.
Now pull the raised edges of the skin and the tomatoes will peel easily.

Advice! If you fail, repeat the procedure again.

How to peel tomatoes using the microwave

Almost every housewife has a microwave oven in her kitchen. But not everyone knows that this device can be used to clean tomatoes.

Cleaning sequence:

Cut the base of the tomatoes.
Place them on a plate with a flat bottom.
Place the plate in the microwave for 40-50 seconds, turning on the food heating mode.
Pull out the tomatoes and remove the skin, which will easily separate from the pulp.

Note! If you need ready-made peeled tomatoes to prepare a dish, you can pre-bake them in the oven. Once cooked, the skin can be easily separated from the flesh. In addition, this cooking process preserves most of the vitamins.

How to peel tomatoes without heat treatment

The easiest and fastest way to remove the peel is to peel it using a paring knife or a double-sided vegetable peeler. This method is used by most housewives, because it takes minimal effort and time. The only drawback is the not very presentable appearance of the vegetables and a large loss of pulp. But this does not affect the final taste of the dish.

Advice! The resulting peel can be used to decorate dishes. A wonderful rose will come out of a carefully cut peel. To make it, you need to twist the skin into the shape of a flower.

By learning these simple peeling methods, you can use peeled tomatoes in your dishes without worrying about their taste and quality.

Anastasia Garina

Tomatoes and various dishes using them have long been included in the traditional cuisine of European peoples. Canning tomatoes in the fall is a must-do activity for almost every housewife. Without salads using this delicious vegetable, a summer dinner table is not possible.

And of course, it’s hard to imagine barbecue, pizza or pasta without the use of ketchup.

How and why do you need to peel a tomato?

Recipes for delicious dishes using a healthy vegetable, which no housewife can do without, are traditionally passed down from generation to generation.

Methods for preparing stuffed and pickled tomatoes and numerous sauces and seasonings made from them are published in large quantities in print publications and on the Internet.

However, words alone cannot convey all the nuances and subtleties of home cooking.

They can only be learned by watching the work of recognized masters of their craft who have been perfecting their culinary skills for many years.

They know exactly what to add and where, when to turn it over, determining the right moment not with a stopwatch, but by condition, color and smell. And, of course, they have the secret of how to easily peel tomatoes.

So, to create any tomato sauce you need a large number of peeled tomatoes. It is important to do this so that the resulting gravy has a homogeneous mass, because during cooking the skin curls up and becomes stiff, which can spoil the taste and appearance of any dish and discourage the appetite of even a very hungry person. In addition, tomato skin is difficult to digest, which should be kept in mind when preparing food for people suffering from digestive disorders, the elderly and children.

Experienced chefs easily cope with this problem and are happy to share a method on how to peel tomatoes quickly and without unnecessary hassle. To do this, you need to make cross-shaped cuts with a sharp knife at the base of the ripe fruit, without damaging the pulp. Place water on the fire in a large saucepan that can accommodate a large number of prepared tomatoes. Bring it to a boil, turn off the gas and submerge the tomatoes as soon as the first bubbles appear on the surface.

After about twenty seconds, the corners of the skin on the pre-made cuts will begin to bend. Once this happens, remove the tomatoes from the hot water and place them under cold running water. Remove the skin from the cooled tomatoes using a knife or your hands, lightly pulling it by the peeled corners. If it does not give in immediately, it means that the tomato is not ready and should be kept in hot water a little longer.

There is another way to peel a tomato, similar to this one. It is more suitable for overripe fruits. To do this, you need to carefully make the same cuts at the base of the fruit as in the first option.

But do not put them in boiling water, but simply scald the tomatoes and remove the skins by pulling the corners that have turned up. Remember, if the recipe calls for the use of whole pieces of elastic pulp, then the vegetables should not be subjected to heat treatment for too long.

This cooking method is called blanching.

It is used to get rid of germs and other harmful microorganisms, as well as to facilitate the cleaning of thin-skinned foods, such as all varieties of peppers, tomatoes and some types of river fish. Blanching should not be confused with similar processing processes - stewing or the so-called poaching, when cooking is carried out with a small amount of water under a lid.

Using tomato skins in decorative dishes

Using tomato peels you can quickly and easily decorate almost any dish. For this purpose, more suitable "meaty varieties", since they add the necessary volume when decorated. To make, for example, a decoration in the form of a pretty rose, you need to use a very sharp knife to start cutting off the skin with a small layer of pulp from the end of the tomato opposite the base.

Moving in a spiral and maintaining a uniform width, you need to remove the peel from the entire surface of the tomato, ending with a cut near the stem. Keep in mind that the thinner the strip, the better it will wrap.

Lay the resulting spiral on the table, flesh side down, and, starting from the inside, assemble the rose, using the beginning of the cut as the base of the flower. To make the structure stronger, you can fasten it with a toothpick, but such a move can ruin the appearance, and the shape can hold just like that, without additional tools.

For another option for using the peel of fleshy tomato varieties for decorative purposes, you will need a slightly unripe large tomato.

By cutting it into six uniform slices along the longitudinal axis, the pulp is completely removed. Arrange the slices in a circle, petals up, and prepare the next slightly smaller fruit in the same way. Then they lay it out in a checkerboard pattern in the center of the circle formed by the peeled slices of the first tomato, and give the whole composition the appearance of a lotus flower.

If desired, it can be supplemented with another inner circle, and a peeled boiled quail egg can be placed in the middle.

Tomatoes are without a doubt one of the most common culinary ingredients in the world.
Quite often, before using, it is necessary to remove the thin skin from them.
Although peeling tomatoes is a basic, simple skill, it is nevertheless very important in cooking.
For salads or cold appetizers, where tomatoes are used fresh, there is no need to peel them.
But in cases where tomatoes will be added to soups and stews in the future, or if you plan to make a sauce from them, the skin must be removed. After all, firstly, tomato skin is poorly absorbed by the body, and secondly, during heat treatment it will separate (peel off) from the pulp and curl up. In the finished dish it looks terribly unappetizing, in a simple way. And in general, catching tomato skins from soup or stew is still a pleasure.
In a word, if you don’t yet know how to peel tomatoes, or if you don’t understand some of the nuances of the process, this article is for you.

How to peel a tomato?
Very simple!

1. First of all, using a small sharp knife, carefully remove the so-called eyes of the tomatoes, that is, those places to which the stalk was attached.
In principle, you can remove these eyes later, in the process of further slicing the tomatoes, as you prefer.

2. In the part of each tomato opposite from the eyes, at the top, make a cross-shaped cut in the skin. Cut shallowly, without plunging the knife blade too deeply into the flesh of the fruit, and taking care to cut only the skin.

3. Place a pan of water on the fire and bring it to a boil. Place the tomatoes in another container. Also prepare a bowl of cold (ice water) separately.

4. When the water boils, pour boiling water over the tomatoes until the water completely covers them. It takes 15-20 seconds for tomatoes to take a hot bath. It is not advisable to keep it longer, because the pulp will begin to cook.

5. Drain the hot water and immediately immerse the tomatoes under cold (ice) water for 40-50 seconds, let them cool a little. Cold water will stop the heat treatment process.
Do not leave chilled tomatoes in cold water for a long time so that they do not become saturated with it.

6. Peel cooled tomatoes by gently pulling at the corners of the curled skin at the cuts with the blade of a knife. After the bath procedures described above, the skin should easily separate from the pulp. If suddenly it separates poorly, re-immerse the tomatoes in boiling water for 10-15 seconds.

P.S.
The tomato should be ripe, but elastic, not soft.
The riper the tomatoes and the thinner the skin, the less time they need to be kept in hot water. Unripe tomatoes, or thick-skinned ones, may even require up to 35-50 seconds. But in any case, it is extremely undesirable to overexpose any tomatoes in boiling water.

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Peeled tomatoes are used in a variety of recipes. And this is not surprising - the peel makes the dish more coarse, it is felt in the food even after it is completely cooked. To make the food tender and tasty, the skin must be removed from the tomatoes. Especially when preparing sauces and homemade ketchups, where absolute uniformity of consistency is required. So, how do you peel tomatoes?

Hot and ice water

This is a classic way to remove the skin from a tomato. To peel, you need to choose ripe, but fairly strong tomatoes. Overripe ones are not suitable - they will immediately fall apart from the boiling water. For the entire procedure, we will need a pan of water, a bowl of ice water, several tomatoes and a knife.

First you need to prepare the tomatoes. They are washed thoroughly and the stems are removed if necessary.
There is a lot of debate about whether it is worth cutting out the stem in advance. On the one hand, this is, of course, convenient, since you don’t have to deal with the hot tomato later. However, on the other hand, during blanching, valuable tomato juice comes out, right from the place where the stalk was cut out. Therefore, it is better, of course, to cut out the stalk after blanching.
On the back side of the tomato (not on the side where the stalk is located), you need to make a cross-shaped cut. It will allow you to quickly peel the skin after blanching.
Place the water in the pan on the fire and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat so that the water does not boil too much.
Place a small container of cold water next to the gas stove. To be convincing, you can throw pieces of ice in there - this will allow the liquid to stay cold longer.
Place tomatoes in boiling water for 10-25 seconds. The holding time depends on how ripe your tomatoes are. If you blanch your tomatoes often, you will soon be able to determine the exact blanching time experimentally. However, remember that tomatoes cannot be kept in boiling water for more than 30 seconds - after that they will begin to cook and become soft.
It's best to blanch tomatoes in a special strainer or slotted spoon to quickly lower and lift the vegetables, rather than catching them with a spoon all over the pan.
After you remove the tomatoes from the boiling water, you should immediately plunge them into ice water for 20 seconds. This will stop the heat from affecting them, which will prevent them from cooking. And in general, ice water will help quickly cool the tomatoes, making them much more pleasant to peel.
And peeling tomatoes after such blanching is a pleasure. A sharp temperature change affects tomatoes in the most beautiful way - the skin peels off almost by itself, without much effort.
After this, you will need to cut off the stalks from the tomato, then you can use the tomatoes further according to the recipe.

In this way, you can peel not only tomatoes, but also peaches.

However, there is not always time to carry out such a lengthy operation with a saucepan, a basin, boiling water and ice. When a cooking recipe calls for peeled tomatoes here and now, you can use a quick method for peeling tomatoes. All you need for this is tomatoes and a kettle of boiling water.

Place the washed and cut tomatoes in the sink. Pour boiling water over them from a kettle. Spray each tomato for at least 10 seconds. Usually this is enough for the skin to begin to come off on its own. If some tomato still resists and does not want to undress, pour boiling water over it again.

Peeling tomatoes on fire

The following method of peeling tomatoes can be used in extreme conditions, for example, in nature. After all, what could be tastier than a juicy, peeled tomato with a piece of grilled barbecue?

Place the washed tomato on a small, clean stick or fork. Hold the tomato over the burner or fire for about 20 seconds. Rotate the tomato constantly to warm it up on all sides. After a while, you will notice that the skin begins to wrinkle. Now it is very easy to remove it with your hands, the main thing is not to get burned.

Peel the skins of tomatoes using a knife

If you have nothing at hand except a knife and a board, you can peel the tomatoes using these improvised means. However, we do not promise that the vegetables will remain intact.

Cut the tomato into four parts. Carefully cut off the stems. After this, place the tomato quarter with the skin on the board and the seeds facing up. Using a knife, carefully scrape out the flesh of the tomato, leaving the skin on the cutting board. This is, of course, a painstaking task that requires a lot of time, but this method has a right to exist. Especially if after peeling you still have to chop the tomatoes into a homogeneous mass.

By the way, for such peeling of tomatoes there are special devices presented in the form of convenient curved knives.

How to peel tomatoes from seeds

Most recipes call for using smooth tomato pulp, without peels or seeds. We already understand how to get rid of the peel. But how to peel an already stripped tomato from the seeds?

Removing seeds from tomatoes is even easier than skinning them. After you peel the blanched tomato, you will need to cut it into 4 parts. Then carefully, using a spoon, you need to pull out the inner part along with the partitions. In fact, there is no need to regret the seeds. They carry nothing but liquid - no taste. But dishes prepared from seeds and peeled tomatoes are real works of culinary art.

A tomato without skin is much tastier and more tender than its unpeeled counterpart. Removing the skin from tomatoes is not at all difficult, even if you have the hardest varieties of this vegetable in front of you. A few smart movements - and the tomato itself will give you its peel!