cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
What's the Difference Between All the Types of Tomatoes? - Bon Appetite
Beefsteak vs. cherry vs. grape vs. heirloom vs. plum.
Before we answer our guiding question—what’s the difference between beefsteak, cherry, grape, heirloom, and plum tomatoes—we have to address another one: Why are grocery-store tomatoes so bad?
There are two major categories of tomatoes: heirlooms, which we’ll cover below, and hybrids.
Hybrids
The tomatoes you’ll find year-round in the grocery store are hybrids, which means that humans have cultivated and bred them for specific characteristics. Not all hybrids are bad, but the grocery-store ones usually are; they’re bred for resistance to diseases, firm flesh, thick skin, and storage potential, rather than, say, flavor. They’re also yanked from their plants while they’re still hard as rocks so that they don’t get crushed on the way to their final destination. Off the vine, they can’t develop the sugars, acids, and other flavor/aroma chemicals that make them actually taste good—so they’re sprayed with ethylene gas instead, which induces reddening and softening. The result: watery, cottony pucks.
Beefsteak vs. cherry vs. grape vs. heirloom vs. plum.
Before we answer our guiding question—what’s the difference between beefsteak, cherry, grape, heirloom, and plum tomatoes—we have to address another one: Why are grocery-store tomatoes so bad?
There are two major categories of tomatoes: heirlooms, which we’ll cover below, and hybrids.
Hybrids
The tomatoes you’ll find year-round in the grocery store are hybrids, which means that humans have cultivated and bred them for specific characteristics. Not all hybrids are bad, but the grocery-store ones usually are; they’re bred for resistance to diseases, firm flesh, thick skin, and storage potential, rather than, say, flavor. They’re also yanked from their plants while they’re still hard as rocks so that they don’t get crushed on the way to their final destination. Off the vine, they can’t develop the sugars, acids, and other flavor/aroma chemicals that make them actually taste good—so they’re sprayed with ethylene gas instead, which induces reddening and softening. The result: watery, cottony pucks.