Tomatoes: Refrigerate or store at room temp?

[Robin Garr]

Alton Brown says never refrigerate tomatoes. It kills flavor.

Now comes a persuasive counter-argument in favor of refrigeration. (Article at the link):
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/why- ... atoes.html

I'm a big follower of AB, so I tend to believe in his argument that refrigeration below 50 degrees F causes a flavor compound called (Z)-3-hexenal is just going to flip itself off like a chemical switch ... permanently. Here's an AB Facebook post on this:
https://www.facebook.com/altonbrown/pos ... 3959223213

On the other hand, when we get a big summer crop from the garden or farmer's market, I'll refrigerate 'em in an instant when the alternative is for them to go overripe or even rot on the counter, so there's that.

What do you think? Do you keep your fresh summer 'maters on the counter or in the fridge?

I'll answer by just reposting what I wrote last year when you posted previous piece by same guy

I try not to refrigerate tomatoes. If a tomato is perfectly ripe, and I don't expect to eat it tomorrow, I take to basement. If overloaded with tomatoes, will refrigerate the ripest ones, and then use for a sauce. Only a true doofus leaves a ripe tomato for 4 days to rot.

[Robin Garr]

I'll answer by just reposting what I wrote last year when you posted previous piece by same guy

I did!? Damn! The memory must be the second thing to go. I have no recollection of that, Dale.

[Jenise]

Robin, you did. But I'll happily say again: I leave on the counter to ripen if needed, and then I refrigerate. If they lose flavor in the fridge, and I don't buy into Alton's claim that they do, that's less a loss than the textural breakdown of overripeness.

Either or if it's a home grown, vine ripened tomato. Anything beats a grocery store tomato, which you cant destroy the "flavor" no matter what you do to it!

If at all possible, I gorge.

Shop bought toms I keep in fridge with rest of salad items.

Now, when toms in my garden are ripening, I pick them as I need them and consume within the hour.

Seems its simple to dicover ones own preferences if one grows them, pick a dozen, divide in half, keep one lot outside and one lot inside fridge and compare day by day.

No good doing it with shop bought as one doesn't know of they've been chilled before buying.

[Robin Garr]

Seems its simple to dicover ones own preferences if one grows them, pick a dozen, divide in half, keep one lot outside and one lot inside fridge and compare day by day.

That's pretty much what the geeks did in the article in the original post ...

Yup, it's easy enough to do