Tomato preservation: freezing whole

[Jenise]

Just read this: "This is all you have to do to freeze your garden tomatoes so that you can use them all winter long. Just wash, take stems off and freeze. When you take them from the freezer put them in the sink while still frozen, turn the hot water on them and the peelings just come off so easily this way. I then cut them up while still frozen and add to any recipe."

I'm interested!

Let us know how that works. A lot of tomatoes are used here for cooking, eating, and making tomato sauce and paste.
Whatever is left at the end of the week prior to going to Farmer's Market, is roasted with a head of fresh garlic, then make sauce in a food processor, no peeling needed. I'm thinking once thawed, the tomato will be mush. When I used to can tomatoes, they did well in soups that I would freeze.
I am also thinking those whole tomatoes are going to take up a lot of room in the freezer.

I agree with Karen on all points. I have done this in years past but only in desperation when pressed for time and when plenty of freezer space. I found them useful only when making a stock or soup calling for tomato or a very long, slow braise. They are watery and stringy. The peeling part is slick but when tomatoes are plentiful and space is at a premium I make a sauce using whole, unpeeled tomatoes, onion. garlic parsley and basil and a bit of hot pepper. Non paste tomatoes are very watery so I cook it down depending on what I'm looking for in the final sauce. Less if I want to enhance the acidic nature or longer if I want it sweeter. I often leave the sauce as is, what I refer to as contadini style. Large chunks of tomato and onion which is good for rustic pasta dishes or cacciatore type braises. The rest gets passed through a food mill leaving only the skins. Containers of these sauces fill 2 fridge freezers. When I have no more freezer room, I slice, season with oregano, basil, parsley, garlic, salt and dehydrate. You can pack a lot of dehydrated tomatoes in a flat bag and freeze and there's always just a bit more room to squeeze these in. A few of these act like commercial paste in a sauce, are great in a salad or used for various crostini applications.

Piling on... The folks who raise my very favorite T'Giving turkey also grow produce and they make sauce (or puree) before bagging/freezing. Just no sense in wasting freezer space on inside-fruit structure that's going to disappear anyway.

[Jenise]

Actually, I agree too. Pre-cooking IS the way to go. But as a last-ditch effort to save a few tomatoes when you have no time to go the other route, it has merit. I'd have never thought of freezing them raw/whole.