How To Peel Tomatoes Without Burning Your Hands (No Boiling Required) - Tasting Table

"Peeling your tomatoes can be as simple as placing them whole in the freezer and leaving them until they're fully frozen. Then, when you remove them from the freezer and allow them to thaw completely, the tomatoes will appear a bit wrinkled and their skins will slip off easily. Why does this happen? Freezing the tomatoes ruptures cells just beneath the skin so that, when the tomatoes come back to room temperature, pectic enzymes break down the binding between the skin and the flesh."

"Delfino Cagnoni first patented a method to facilitate tomato peeling by employing a two-step freeze-heat process in 1957. Then, a couple of decades later, another group of researchers refined his idea in a 1976 study. Fast forward half a century, and the tomato freezing hack has made its round across TikTok and Reddit, where home cooks praise it for its simplicity and efficiency. "We quit canning and put the tomatoes in the freezer. So much easier!!!!!" wrote one Reddit user. Another wrote that "you don't even have to peel and dice first, just freeze them whole ... When they start to thaw, they just slip right off.""

Freezing whole tomatoes ruptures cells beneath the skin so pectic enzymes break down the bond between skin and flesh when thawed, allowing easy peeling without boiling. The method requires placing whole tomatoes in the freezer until solid, then thawing to room temperature; skins become wrinkled and slip off readily. The technique originated with a 1957 patent and was refined in 1976, and it has been widely adopted by home cooks for canning and sauce-making. Freezing simplifies preparation, reduces the risk of burns from blanching, and eliminates the need for a blanch-and-shock step for many users.

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