The #1 Manner Folks Damage Tomato Sauce—and The right way to Repair It

You have spent hours simmering tomato sauce made with ripe, juicy tomatoes from the farmers market, solely to search out it acrid and bitter. Was your olive oil rancid? Have been the tomatoes spoiled or of low high quality? Or was it merely dangerous luck?

Chances are high, you’ve got overcooked or burned your garlic. It is a mistake that even essentially the most skilled dwelling cooks could make: You flip your again for a minute, and earlier than you recognize it, your garlic is darkish brown and previous the purpose of no return. As our editorial director, Daniel, has written beforehand, garlic can scent and style burned “even earlier than it has absolutely became blackened bits of carbon.” As a result of garlic comprises a excessive focus of naturally occurring sugars, it tends to burn simply. And when garlic is thinly sliced or minced, because the ingredient is usually known as for in lots of recipes, it is particularly susceptible to charring. 

You may go away the garlic out to keep away from that bitter chunk, after all, however then you definately’d lose out on a vital taste part in lots of tomato sauces from varied cuisines. When sautéed in fats, reminiscent of olive oil or butter, the allium releases flavorful compounds that infuse the sauce with a wealthy, savory depth.

The answer is to maintain the garlic however keep away from burning it—and one of the best ways to try this is to cook dinner it over low warmth. 

As Daniel demonstrated in his testing, cooking garlic over low warmth considerably reduces the chance of burning. At excessive warmth, Daniel’s garlic burned in simply 15 seconds, whereas over low warmth, it took his garlic about 4 and a half minutes to achieve an “undesirable” stage. It is also essential that your garlic is not too finely grated. As Kenji touched on in his Italian-American tomato sauce recipe, garlic pushed by a garlic press or grated on a rasp grater reminiscent of a Microplane quickly burns, so it is best to hand-chop your garlic.

So go forward and make one other batch of tomato sauce. However this time, take note of the way in which the garlic sizzles within the pan and make sure to give it the like it deserves by cooking it over low warmth. Your sauce can be candy and flavorful, with no bitter aftertaste of overcooked garlic.