What Are Pear Tomatoes?

Paste Tomatoes

• Pear or paste tomatoes have high levels of both sugars and acids, important for flavor, plus lots of pectin and less water than other tomato types. Low moisture content and high pectin levels makes paste tomatoes' juice thicker than most eating tomatoes, so it takes less time to cook paste tomatoes down to thick sauces. While people exhibit preferences for one color of tomato over another, color makes no difference in the flavor or nutritional value of tomatoes. Most differences in taste are due to levels of tomato meatiness, the concentration of seeds and the gel level.

Cultivars

• Start with heirloom varieties and keep growing and tasting until you find the right one for you. Ben's Ivory Pear is a pale-yellow, cherry-sized variety that's flavorful, sweet and very productive. Heidi is a heavy-producing, red heirloom with excellent flavor, good for sauces. Japanese Black Trifele, which is probably from Estonia, despite the name, produces abundant mahogany-colored fruit with rich flavor. King Humbert, named for an Italian king, is one of the oldest named tomato varieties. Orange Banana has good flavor and unique color, fun for salsas. Rosy pink Rose de Berne is spicy, sweet and juicy, excellent for eating fresh. Yellow Pear, also known as Beam's Yellow Pear, is mild and sweet, a tomato your grandmother probably loved.

Growing

• Most paste or pear tomatoes, certainly the heirloom varieties, are indeterminate, meaning the vines continue growing producing flowers and fruits until frost. Grow paste tomatoes as you would any indeterminate tomato, providing tomato cages for good vine support. Tomatoes do best in rich, fertile soil in full sun. They need consistent, deep watering. Too much water and too much nitrogen fertilizer cause them to go to vine, producing lush foliage instead of fruit. As each flush of paste tomatoes nears maturity, cut back on feeding and watering. The longer tomatoes stay on the vine, the sweeter they are.

Using

• Many people enjoy pear tomatoes in salads because of their flavor and firmness. Pear or paste tomatoes make excellent fresh or canned salsas. Paste tomatoes are sometimes preferred for canning since the fruits are meaty and don't need cutting up. They are also a good choice for drying because paste tomatoes are firm and meaty. With fewer seeds and more pulp, they produce dried tomatoes of better quality, whether dried them in a dehydrator or in the sun. Freezing whole tomatoes is an easy option to preserve paste tomatoes.