Tomato Varieties for Peeling

Following are my assessments of the varieties of tomatoes I have in the garden by how easy they are to peel when fully ripe but not treated with heat. For difficult-to-peel tomatoes, you can blanch briefly in boiling water then plunge into cold water. This is the most common method used for home canned tomatoes. You can also stick a fork in the stem end of a tomato and rotate it through the flame on a gas stove so that you can peel it more easily.

I will be adding varieties to the following list as I try them individually. Assumes plants were labeled correctly.

Easy to Peel

Bush Early Girl Hybrid: Mostly medium-sized tomatoes, light red, medium-firm walls, juicy seed cavities.

Big Beef Hybrid: Medium to large tomatoes. Mostly large if thinned. May crack at stem if over-watered near ripeness. Deep red skin, meaty but tender walls, medium juicy seed cavities.

Mighty Tom Mostly large tomatoes. May crack deeply at stem if over-watered. Meaty but tender walls, juicy seed cavities. Maintains sweetness in hot weater.

Brandywine (strain unknown): Pink skin, squat, lumpy, prone to catfacing. Very easy to peel. Thick, tender walls. Not too juicy. Great flavor. Not very acid. On the sweet side.

Tomande hybrid Small to medium, squat tomatoes in the style of the green-shouldered Italian type. The one's I've picked have been fully ripe. Flavor not outstanding at that point. Will try with green shoulders.

Better Bush small to medium sized, round, slight cracking possible. Pretty good flavor in heat.

Harder to Peel

Better Boy Medium to medium-large tomatoes. Quite hard to peel unless dead-ripe, and still not the easiest then. Medium firm walls, juicy seed cavities. One of the best-flavored tomatoes in hot weather, on the sweet side. Occasional blossom end rot, but most fruits look very nice.

Champion Indeterminate sibling to Celebrity. Small to medium, salad sized tomatoes. Walls quite firm, seed cavities very juicy. Nice flavor in hot weather. Moderately hard to peel.

Cherokee Purple Dusky purplish-brownish-red tomatoes. Gel in seed cavities is a dark color. Flavor not good when soft-ripe. Best when firm with significant green on shoulders. Then flavor is very interesting. Sometimes called "smoky". Seems to fit. Flesh comes away with peel when you try to peel them. Prone to significant catfacing, some cracking. Early for an heirloom, vigorous, but I grafted a second rootstock onto it (Big Beef). Flavor of soft-ripe fruits is better after they have sat on the counter for a day. Also easier to peel. Good for cooking with squash.