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My tomato sauce is coming out great, lots of flavor, especially after I was able to reduce it following the tips here

However, it is still slightly bitter. What causes a tomato sauce to have a (in my case, slight) bitterness and how do you get rid of it?

Is there an anti-bitter technique that is commonly used.

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Do you start with fresh tomatoes? – BaffledCook May 16 '11 at 21:22
No, canned (Italian) diced tomatoes – Matt May 16 '11 at 21:26
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I find canned tomatoes do have an off taste, more bitter than anything else. Maybe you should change the brand. My teacher recommends plum tomatoes. A colleague recommends whole canned tomatoes. I recommend investigating a lot of different brands... Go with fresh mature tomatoes if you can, canned whole plum tomatoes if you can't. – BaffledCook May 16 '11 at 21:40
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Do you fry garlic for the tomato sauce? – Tim N May 16 '11 at 22:33
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@Matt: Perhaps you burnt the garlic? That tends to impart bitterness, I've learnt. – Tim N May 17 '11 at 7:05
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4 Answers

up vote 14 down vote accepted

A few things can cause tomato sauces to become bitter:

  • Overcooked spices. Both basil and oregano can become bitter with long simmers. Add them near the end of the process.
  • Under-ripe tomatos. Store bought tomatoes are often picked green and ripened in the store. These tomatoes make less sweet sauces (which may be contributing).
  • Cooking in an aluminium pan. Aluminium reacts with the acid in the tomatoes and adds an off-putting flavour.
  • Seeds/skin in the sauce. Both seeds and skins can be bitter.

You can improve a bitter sauce by adding a small amount of baking soda (or salt), and something sweet (but not too much).

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Great answer Bruce. – BaffledCook May 16 '11 at 21:24
Thank you: I love tomato sauces, they're versatile, tasty, and healthy too. – Bruce Alderson May 16 '11 at 21:45
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If you have a machine to separate skins and seeds from fresh tomatoes, and you hae discovered that you can put the skins/seeds through again and get another jolt of sauce (thicker than what you get the first time through), do not put them through a third time - that will bring the bitterness from the seeds into the sauce. – Kate Gregory Jun 6 '11 at 15:01
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In the same vein as Bruce's answer, try using plain diced tomatoes and adding the spices yourself instead of using the "italian" variety. Also, If you use garlic in your sauce too that might sweeten it a little and counteract the bitterness without adding sugar.

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Also consider roasting some garlic for your sauce: I often will use roasted, lightly fried, and granulated garlic in the same sauce (for extra garlicy dimensions). The oven-roasted garlic is sweet, and adds incredible depth. – Bruce Alderson May 18 '11 at 2:58
up vote 1 down vote

Skin the tomatoes but keep them whole in the sauce 'til cooked. They will break down when they're ready. Seeds are bitter. Also I add a couple of sweet bay leaves.

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up vote -1 down vote

For being more precise:

Tomatos are acid! This is the characteristic of tomatos. And this is also the reason of tomato success. Thanks to this quality tomato makes edible all other acidless food. Acidity produces a strong salivation that makes easiest the first approach with food you eat, clean palate and give the wish to eat again at once. But also acidity makes bite fairly bound in mouth up to bottom.

In fact before tomato, acidity was taken from citrus and fruits.

Of course acidity makes food bitter. This is the only reason of bitterness of tomato sauce.

There are two main ways we use in Italy to remove that bitterness:

  • a pinch of sugar in the sauce while cooking it. This is the main and traditional one!
  • a pinch of bicarbonate of soda.

The garlic and also triturated carrot are other ways but alter the sauce. I don't advice those for genuine tomato sauce.

I hope you have a better understanding of bitterness and I could help you validating what Bruce said about how to remove it.

The Italian cooker ;)

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About garlic I said that because if your tomato sauce has started with garlic you're at middle way to reach your target for sure but what if your tomato sauce is made from onions? That's why I raise objections to garlic solution. ;) – soneangel Jun 6 '11 at 10:38
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Sourness is based on acidity. Bitterness involves completely different taste receptors and compounds which are common in plants and herbs. – Aaronut♦ Jun 6 '11 at 21:27
@Aaronut well I missed understand the taste topic. But they are confuse as well. Because the baking soda and something sweet react with sourness, not react with bitterness! ;) – soneangel Jun 7 '11 at 7:51
Baking soda would reduce acidity, sugar would add sweetness (that masks sourness and bitterness). None of those will "react" with bitterness or sourness. If you have burnt garlic in the sauce you still have it, no matter how much sugar you add. – nico Sep 7 '11 at 22:42

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