I've heard from pretty much every cooking source I follow that the reason canned taste better than fresh is because nearly all US tomato varieties sold fresh have been bred for their ability to be picked early, be transported long distances, hit with ethylene gas, and look good in the store. Taste isn't a factor in those tomatoes, in fact the grainy thick inner walls and small flavorful jelly sacks help in transportation. Fresh tomatoes in other country tend to be far better with much bigger jelly sacks.
Canned tomatoes don't have an in store look to worry about and are different varieties. The canning process might help in sauce creation but isn't the main factor in the US
Amen on the US tomato varieties. They ship beautifully, they will sustain any handling gentler than a baseball bat, and they taste like nothing in particular. We eat fresh tomatoes from mid-summer through early fall, when local farms have tomatoes bred to eat rather than to ship.
I exclusively buy Classico Sauce, because for the price of the sauce that you get, you also get an ATLAS Mason Jar... with oz markings as well in the glass...
So for sometimes, $2 you get a 16oz of all sorts of flavors of sauce, and a Mason jar to boot.
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Also, since this is HN - the Mason Jar was basically either invented by or perfected by the BALL brothers.
The BALL brothers evolved from inventing the mason jar to making some of the most sophisticated and, I believe, top secret components for a lot of stuff that winds up in orbit...
Is that Classico jar a real mason jar, suitable for canning?
Edit: The Web isn't 100% conclusive on this (e.g., a /r/canning comment will seem to acknowledge generally-accepted wisdom that Classico jars cannot be used for canning, but then someone else will follow up with a comment saying it works for them). But Classico themselves have said that their jars are thinner than canning ones, and also have a coating that's a problem: https://old.reddit.com/r/Canning/comments/gjme5m/testing_out...
I dont use them for canning, sadly, as canning seems too daunting for my cooking skill level ATM...
What I do use them for is drinking glasses, and I make custom leather sleeves for them and give them out as gifts.
I buy Bamboo or Copper lids for them for aesthetics, but I personally just use them to drink from, or to transfer soups/stews (my favorite things to make) to friends and neighbors.
I DO NOT belive they are safe for canning, as I had one shatter after going from hot to cold too quickly, so I do believe they are too thin to can in, sadly.
But I am curious about the coating - hadnt heard that - and need to look into it. Thanks for the heads-up
I've heard from pretty much every cooking source I follow that the reason canned taste better than fresh is because nearly all US tomato varieties sold fresh have been bred for their ability to be picked early, be transported long distances, hit with ethylene gas, and look good in the store. Taste isn't a factor in those tomatoes, in fact the grainy thick inner walls and small flavorful jelly sacks help in transportation. Fresh tomatoes in other country tend to be far better with much bigger jelly sacks.
Canned tomatoes don't have an in store look to worry about and are different varieties. The canning process might help in sauce creation but isn't the main factor in the US