Return of the Jersey tomato . . .

[lookin]

No, not the tasty tease above, but the mouthwatering honest-to-goodness tomato developed in 1934 at Rutgers University for the Campbell's Soup Company.

In those days, taste was paramount and growing fields were not far from the plant where the soup was made from fresh tomatoes. Over the years, flavor took a back seat to high yield, pest-resistance, and ship-ability. Production was moved from New Jersey to California and tomatoes were processed into a standardized paste from which the soup was eventually made.


The idea to resurrect the Jersey tomato was actually sparked by a woman from Campbell’s, Dot Hall, who had headed up the company’s soup product development. She was at a tomato tasting sponsored by food scientists at Rutgers about five years ago when she made the suggestion.

As it turns out, Campbell’s had retained seeds from the two varieties used to create the Rutgers tomato. They were the Marglobe and the JTD, named for Dr John T Dorrance, a chemist who served as Campbell’s first president and invented canned condensed soup.

. . .

Campbell’s had kept the seeds in an archive because its research group would periodically plant different seed varieties to see if it could improve the yield and health of the company’s tomatoes, which are now grown in California. The company was also concerned about taste.

“You’d hear people say, ‘The tomato soup doesn’t taste as good as it used to taste,’ so we’d go back and plant plots in California to see if we could improve the taste,” Hall said. “But our goal was to get tomatoes that were higher yield. Flavor wasn’t necessarily an attribute we were trying to improve.”

Hall also believes Campbell’s soup doesn’t taste like it used to, but she says it’s partly because they no longer use fresh tomatoes that have been recently harvested. They now use a tomato paste made from tomatoes that have been preserved in sterile packaging.

After Hall’s conversation with Rutgers, scientists began planting Marglobe and JTD seeds from Campbell’s archive. The two varieties were then cross pollinated again, as they were in 1934. Simply put, pollen from a male flower of one variety was used to pollinate a female flower from the other variety. When the cross-pollinated plants bore fruit, the seeds were taken out and used to create about 250 new plants.

. . .

Scientists narrowed the 250 plants down to about 20, then 10, then five, and now three. They’ve been holding taste tests across the state, asking residents to rate the tomatoes based on their sweetness, flavor, acidity and texture. The final taste test will be in a week or two, as scientists sort through the data. They hope to have a winner next month, in time for Rutgers’ 250th anniversary next year. The seeds of the winner will be available for sale in January.

Personally, I'm a big fan of recapturing the taste of food as it used to be before profits began to trump nutrition and flavor. I doubt Campbell's will change its sourcing and production protocols in the interest of better flavor and nutrition, but the presence in the marketplace of one more heritage product is welcome news.

[RA1]

Fascinating. I like Campbell's tomato soup. However, for "real" tomatoes, give me Ripley tomatoes any and every time.

Best regards,

RA1

PS- Those are the locally grown, eagerly anticipated every year MEM area tomatoes.

[MsGuy]

Just as a matter of nomenclature, is it legit to call a modern hybrid a 'heritage' tomato especially when it's an old commercial variety that has fallen into disuse?

[lookin]

Just as a matter of nomenclature, is it legit to call a modern hybrid a 'heritage' tomato especially when it's an old commercial variety that has fallen into disuse?

Well, I must admit I used the word 'heritage', rather thoughtlessly in retrospect, to mean old-fashioned and retaining its traditional flavor.

If I'd thought more about it, I might have used the word 'heirloom' and meandered into even deeper furrows.

Not sure whether 'heirloom' would apply to these seeds or not. Even if it did, there's no guarantee the tomatoes will taste like the originals. According to Wikipedia:

Most, if not all, hybrid plants, if regrown, will not be the same as the original hybrid plant . . .

And the Rutgers scientists started out regrowing two-hundred fifty hybrids, before winnowing them down to a final three. I don't know where the 'taste memory' would reside to tell them they hit pay dirt, or what other records and data they have available. But my guess is they'll call it something different and stay out of the 'heirloom' battle.

Still, it is scientists who are leading the project and the seeds they started with are genetically much closer to the originals and have eighty years less commercial breeding under their skins. So they should be much closer to the originals than anything we're getting today.

[RA1]

Yes, I am expecting transported tomatoes to be square any day now so they can pack more into a box. Those are already tasteless and then they will be ugly also.

Best regards,

RA1