Hi all
Last year my canned tomatoes had so much juice. I need to add some meatier tomatoes this year. I have seeds for: Jersey Devil, Opalka, Wes, Vilms, Mama Leone, Napoli, Amish Paste, Grandma Mary's Paste, Rozovyi Myod, and Cuor di bue. Some I've grown and some new to me. I should probably drop some. Anyone want to offer opinions?
Barb

My opinion is that heart-shaped tomatoes are meatier. Whether they are less juicy is another story to figure out. We also have noticed more juice than meat but we do not can tomatoes but freeze them. Thicker stuff means cooking the tomatoes down into pastey tomatoes and that is not what we want.

Of the varieties listed, I grew: Jersey Devils, Opalka, Wes, Napoli, Amish Paste and Cuor di Bue. If I may recommend Opalka (better not Jersey Devils), Amish Paste, Wes heart, maybe even Cuor di Bue steak. Napoli is a small tomato (relatively larger proportion of skins), it could also be used. I did not find any Vilms tomato, I assume it is a bad spelling of the name of the Czech balcony tomato Vilma, completely unsuitable for this purpose.If you would like to preserve the juice, you need to monitor the pH, or adjust it by adding a more acidic tomato (some kind of slicer).
Vladimír

Amish Paste is the only one of the listed types I have grown. It is meaty and not especially juicy. Amish Paste is really more of a heart type of tomato in my experience with the characteristic wispy foliage of heart tomato varieties. The fruits themselves are somewhat varied in shape with some being more narrow than others, but all more or less narrow heart shaped.

I’m growing “Ashleigh” this season, which isn’t on your list, but is reportedly less juicy than a typical beefsteak tomato and very meaty and I wanted to mention this variety in case you are interested. Evidently, the tomato Ashleigh originated in N.Macedonia just across the border from Greece in spite of the very English sounding name. The foliage has some characteristics of heart tomatoes and the foliage differs from the other potato and regular leafed beefsteak type tomatoes I am growing this year. Some Descriptions of the tomatoes mention Ashleigh tomatoes taking on blunt heart shapes. Photos of the tomatoes look unlike the more typical beefsteak shapes.

Rozovyi Myod and Cuor di bue are very meaty and make good sauce. My mom grows both of those.

MrBig46 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 28, 2025 3:53 am Of the varieties listed, I grew: Jersey Devils, Opalka, Wes, Napoli, Amish Paste and Cuor di Bue. If I may recommend Opalka (better not Jersey Devils), Amish Paste, Wes heart, maybe even Cuor di Bue steak. Napoli is a small tomato (relatively larger proportion of skins), it could also be used. I did not find any Vilms tomato, I assume it is a bad spelling of the name of the Czech balcony tomato Vilma, completely unsuitable for this purpose.If you would like to preserve the juice, you need to monitor the pH, or adjust it by adding a more acidic tomato (some kind of slicer).
Vladimír

Thanks for your input. My Vilms seed came from Sandhill Preservation. "Vilms- Mid-season, Semi-determinate, extremely productive, 2 oz. red paste tomato, juicier than most paste tomatoes. Huge yields." My seed is old so not sure if it will germinate but I can give it a shot.

Acer Rubrum wrote: ↑Fri Mar 28, 2025 7:18 am Rozovyi Myod and Cuor di bue are very meaty and make good sauce. My mom grows both of those.

Thanks Acer, I will keep them on my grow list.
Barb

Get thee to Yaqui (https://tomatogrowers.com/products/yaqui-vffna-hybrid) and Super Sauce (https://www.burpee.com/tomato-supersauc ... Dx8ZaODWuu) Hybrids.

The Gotch

I'm not much of a saucer, either flying or with my feet well grounded. I dump dozens and dozens of varieties into one pot, to produce the most complex flavors possible. Unfortunately I don't record what I throw in, so a certain flavor cannot be replicated. The top half of a tomato is for saving seeds and throwing into the stock pot, the bottom half is for fresh eating.

Basically what I've read, is that there are two types of sauce makers. Those that use traditionally dry plum/paste types, so that they can cook the sauce down much faster. They also generally use determinate varieties, having a concentrated harvest time. I do not know how good a sauce tastes using those dry tomato varieties.

The others use very meaty hearts and sometimes beefsteaks.They are usually much juicer and take longer to reduce down. Some claim that these very good fresh eating tomatoes make a better sauce than using the dry varieties. I don't understand the use of extremely juicy varieties like Costoluto Genovese, unless when cooked the flavor really comes out of them. Fresh, they aren't much, to me.

If the weather is too hot during the main harvest time, I am not making sauce. I cut and seed fresh tomatoes, jam them into large containers to freeze, and then thaw them when the weather cools down. After thawing, there is a lot of water that can be poured out of the containers, prior to cooking. The tomato skins must be fished/strained out of the stock pot.

I make sauce using whatever varieties on hand. I use the oven and roast them. I do use a lot of canned tomatoes but this last year when I raw packed as always there was a lot of juice. I want to add some less juicy types to the jar. I love big fruited heirlooms but I think they are probably too juicy.
Barb

@Tormato Costuloto Genovese should not be juicy, they should be a reasonablely dry tomato, which was why Brokenbar on TV used it as her main sauce tomato.

@BarbamWy I am happy to use whatever varieties for sauce, but considering the temperature here when I cook them, I do much prefer the dryer ones like Costuloto Genovese or Russo Sicilian Togeta. Costuloto Fiorentino is another indeterminate that is good for sauces. I also find that the determinate varieties Shere Khan, Japanese Onion and USDA 97L97 good, with later producing a good orange sauce. For me, with the way I cook the sauces, these minimise the cook time I need, which if done in 100F air, is beneficial