Equivalent tomato products: paste, sauce, puree, diced, whole
Doctor says low sodium so now I have to make my own tomato sauces ( pizza, spaghetti etc ). So I look up a bunch of recipes online to decide what to add and in what proportions ( using no salt added tomato products of course ).
The problem is that one recipe calls for whole tomatoes, another calls for diced, another puree and paste.
What are equivalent amounts ( in terms of "tomatoness" ) of each so I can compare these recipes?
To clarify as asked by Jefromi. I'm basically trying to compare ingredients and instructions
For example (made up off course ):
Recipe 1 calls for
15 ounces Tomato sauce
8 ounces Tomato paste
1 lb ground beef
3 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
...
Recipe 2 calls for
32 oz Diced Tomato
1-1/2 lb ground beef
5 gloves of garlic
3 medium onions
...
I want to "normalize" each recipe so that they contain the "same" amount of tomato product, then see which contains proportionally more beef, more garlic, more onions etc.
So in these recipe, if the 32 ounces of Diced Tomato is the same as 1-1/2 times 15 oz sauce +8 oz paste then they contain proportionally the same amount of beef, Recipe 2 calls for slighty more garlic ( about 10% more ) etc.
Best Answer
You can get a decent idea just from nutrition labels. Tomatoes are the only ingredient, so pretty much all the numbers on the nutrition label are proportional to the amount of tomatoes in the can. Calories have the most granularity, so:
- peeled whole tomatoes: 0.21 calories/gram
- diced tomatoes: 0.21 calories/gram
- tomato sauce: 0.33 calories/gram
- crushed tomatoes (aka puree): 0.41 calories/gram
- tomato paste: 0.91 calories/gram
No big surprises there; whole/diced tomatoes have plenty of water in the can, then sauce, crushed/puree, and paste are in order of thickness.
I'm sure it varies plenty by brand, but it doesn't sound like you need a lot of precision (it's not like the recipes specify a brand either), so hopefully that's good enough.
That said, I would probably focus more on just finding recipes you like. You can always adjust the amount of meat and other ingredients to suit your preference, no matter what recipe you start with, but a sauce made with diced tomatoes is never going to come out the same as one made with crushed tomatoes, even if it the same amount of raw tomato went into it.
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How much tomato puree equals tomato sauce?
Tomato sauce Tomato sauce! The flavor is less developed than tomato puree, but in many recipes you might not notice a difference. You can use it as a 1:1 replacement, keeping in mind the texture is slightly looser than puree.How much tomato paste do I substitute for puree?
Tomato Paste What is this? Tomato paste makes a great puree substitute. It's made from highly concentrated tomatoes with a deep and sweet flavor. Simply mix 1/4 cup tomato paste with 1/4 cup water and you'll have 1/2 cup of tomato puree substitute.Can I substitute tomato puree for tomato sauce?
Tomato Sauce Substitutes This is actually how some manufacturer's make tomato sauce. -Replace the tomato sauce in your recipe with an equal amount of tomato puree. It's only slightly thicker than tomato sauce, so the difference will be nearly undetectable.What is the conversion of tomato paste to tomato sauce?
All you have to do to turn tomato paste into tomato sauce is add one cup of water to 3/4 cup of tomato paste. Of course, you can add more tomato paste or less water if you want a stronger tomato sauce.Easy Homemade Tomato Paste \u0026 Tomato Puree
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