Give Boring Tomatoes A Flavor Boost With A Truly Secret Ingredient

Growing up in an Italian-American household, I thought I knew all the tricks to enhance tomatoes, whether they were canned, fresh, or in a sauce. If tomato sauce is too acidic, adding a vegetable will balance it out. If you think you've added enough salt to fresh tomatoes, you probably need to add more. Removing tomato skins the right way doesn't require a peeler — just to name a few. However, one ingredient is usually — and rarely — only called for in baking applications, but is  the hero for making out-of-season tomatoes taste like they've been freshly picked off the vine. If you happen to have cream of tartar hanging out in the forgotten corners of your pantry, it now has another purpose as a flavor booster for tomatoes.

If you're unfamiliar with cream of tartar, it looks nothing like it sounds. It's not cream at all and is found alongside dried herbs and spices in grocery stores. It looks similar to baking soda because, like baking soda, cream of tartar is acidic. Typically, cream of tartar is used in baked goods like snickerdoodle cookies, where its acidity not only gives them their signature tangy flavor but also keeps them soft. When air is incorporated into ingredients like egg whites or heavy cream, a few teaspoons of cream of tartar can be used as a stabilizer, helping to create soft, fluffy clouds that hold their shape. For fresh tomatoes that unfortunately lack flavor, the acid within the cream of tartar provides the burst of brightness and slight tang that tomatoes normally should have while also helping the tomatoes maintain their integrity.

Although a tangy bite can be created by adding vinegar, lemon juice, salt, or seasoning, the magic of cream of tartar lies in its ability to act as an acid without adding the extra liquid that can make tomatoes become soggy. It also functions as a seasoning without introducing any new flavors. To effectively combine cream of tartar with tomatoes, start by dicing the fresh tomatoes, followed by seasoning them with salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of one to two teaspoons of cream of tartar, depending on how many tomatoes you have. Next, thoroughly mix the ingredients together, along with any other seasonings you desire. Now you're ready to try tomatoes that have been given a new life.

Often with tomatoes, the goal is to reduce the acidity that particularly occurs within canned tomatoes. Since adding cream of tartar is an ingredient that's meant to provide an acidic flavor, this hack is best used on fresh tomatoes, not canned ones (the fix for acidic canned tomatoes is already in your pantry). We can't always trust that buying tomatoes at the grocery store, especially during the winter, is going to taste as vibrant and juicy as those from the farmer's market or a home garden in the late summer. This is the moment when we dust off the cream of tartar from our pantry.