Last Batch of spaghetti sauce a bit acidic. tips?

[ChrisC_77]

Last years tomato sauce I made turned out very well. My wife requested that we grow more tomatoes and make more. I chose a determinate variety (Celebrity) and have been happy with the yield of my 16 plants. Made a small batch from my initial harvest of 13 tomatoes. All baseball size or larger. Made a 2nd batch the following Friday with 22 tomatoes. Same method. I sliced and cooked down in a pot. Then food processor and strained out seeds and skin with a colander. Although it seemed like the 2nd batch took tremendously longer to cook down the liquid. Despite only being twice the amount. Took 4 times as long.

I added a bit of baking soda and some brown sugar. Seemed to help some. I went ahead and froze and will "doctor" it up when we cook for a meal. I will be making another batch in about 4-5 days. Probably at least 20 tomatoes again. So here are my ideas, and please let me know what you think. I consider myself a well rounded cook...but it's not often that I make a large batch of pasta sauce. So I would appreciate some advice from all of you amazing cooks!

My thoughts.

1. Slice in have and roast with salt, pepper, and herbs, etc. Remove skins and puree in a food processor as is.
2. Slice and remove seed pulp and then season as above, roast and puree.

I know that step 2 will remove some of the liquid content before the start. But I am going to lose flavor components as well? I think that roasting instead of cooking down in a pot not matter how I do it will reduce the liquid content more so.

And from a gardening perspective, is it possible that the soil was a bit too acidic thus yielding in a more tart tomato? Or maybe just the characteristic of this variety which is a 1st time for me?

Thanks!

[Lindsaylew82]

I think roasting until the edges are black lends better, sweeter, more intense flavor. Sweetness counteracts acidity.
I usually doctor up my sauces when I open them for cooking, mainly because meats and other veggies can change the acidity or sweetness of the finished sauce. I like acidic when it comes to canning, which is my preservation style of choice.

[n8young]

I've always heard (from old Italians) that you should cook your sauce with a whole carrot in it(remove said carrot when sauce is done). But this is supposed to help with that issue......

[webmaster]

As I understand it, tomato skins will make the sauce more bitter and acidic. So if you can remove those before cooking down you may experience less acid. Sugar is the way to cut the acid and bitter taste, which kind of happens if the sauce is cooked too long. That's my understanding, not gospel or anything.

[ElizabethB]

Just saw your question. I find that the bitterness/acidity comes from the skin and the excess water from the seeds. When cooking with fresh tomatoes I scald them for 1 minute in boiling water. Shock them in ice water. Peel and remove the seeds. I strain the seeds out of the tomato juice and reserve the juice for cooking. If I have a lot of tomatoes - not this year - I freeze them in zip locks. I purchased some celebrity tomatoes from the Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago. I peeled and cored the tomatoes and made a tomato sauce to serve over spaghetti squash. It was TOO sweet. I had to add a little lemon zest and a few drops of lemon juice to kick it up.

If your tomatoes are still too acidic after peeling and coring add a pinch of sugar.

Roasting does bring out a nice flavor but you still need to remove the skins, seeds and excess water. I rather scald, peel and core. Roasting takes too much time for my taste.