[giardia]

> pasta sauces made with canned tomato base taste so much better than pasta sauce from scratch

That's a matter of taste, to say the least. You could probably come up with all sorts of metrics that show that canned tomatoes have more of this or that, but pasta sauce made with fresh tomatoes taste like tomatoes, canned tomatoes taste like imitation tomatoes or almost like ketchup in comparison. It sounds like you might've not reduced the fresh tomato sauce enough or something.

I won't deny that I use canned 99.99% of the time though. They win on every metric except taste.

[ghshephard]

Tomatoes are one of the few exceptions when it comes to canning - they always taste fresher and more tomato like than fresh store bought tomatoes - and are preferred in most recipes.

The third option, would be garden fresh/farm delivered tomatoes - but they have a shelf like of about 3 days and can't handle transport - so the odds of seeing them outside of a farmers market (or your backyard garden) - are next to nil.

[bigDinosaur]

It is not the case that canned tomatoes taste fresher at least in my experience. For one they have acidity added - on top of already acidic tomatoes - to reduce the risk of botulism or they're heated in the can which gives them a slightly odd taste, certainly not the same as freshly picked ripe tomatoes.

Maybe I've just only ever had inferior canned tomatoes, or the tomatoes I've grown have been particularly good.

[pigsty]

I do think everyone here is making the point that store-bought tomatoes are inferior to canned ones. Home-grown vegetables picked and consumed at the peak of ripeness will always be better than store-bought and artificially ripened, and the likelihood of them being better than canned/frozen is pretty high.

[bigDinosaur]

The original top level poster did just say 'from scratch' but I will grant that if 'store bought' is what people are discussing (as the comment I responded to was, I missed the word) that I do agree. That's mainly due to the tomatoes not being bred for flavour or picked long before ripening or stored long term as far as I know, though.

[aap_]

> pasta sauce made with fresh tomatoes taste like tomatoes

That probably only works if you live in a country blessed with actual tomatoes. In Germany e.g. it's not easy to find tomatoes that taste like tomatoes.

[acalzycalzy]

Ha sure a matter of taste…BUT i stand by the fact that 99% of people don’t know jack about what tastes good.