Why do we use tomato purée when adding tomato as a flavouring agent to a dish, rather than in powdered form, like we do for paprika, onion, garlic etc. ?

Question

Why do we use tomato purée when adding tomato as a flavouring agent to a dish, rather than in powdered form, like we do for paprika, onion, garlic etc. ?

In: 335

Answer 1

One reason why tomatoes are used as a purée (or crushed, or peeled whole) is that it’s cheap and easy to can tomatoes. They already have an acidity that’s quite close to the ideal for preservation (tomatoes range between pH 4 to 5). As a result, if you need additives (like salt or an acid-regulating agent like citric acid) you don’t need much of it.

Paprika on the other hand has an acidity of 6-7 (only mildly acidic) and they’re not loaded on sugar either, so making paprika preserves requires some effort. It’s a lot easier to dehydrate paprika though, and you retain a lot more weight (20% vs just 5% for tomatoes).