How To Skin Tomatoes

Some recipes call for first removing the skin from tomatoes. Sounds a bit messy and may be intimidating for the less experienced cook, but the process is really quite simple.

Skinning tomatoes is common for sauce recipes and the reason you want to peel the skin off a tomato first is to avoid having strings of skin in the dish.

How To Skin Tomatoes

• To skin tomatoes lightly cut an “X” at the base (about 1″ x 1″), score a small circle lightly around the top “stem” area and place in a deep pan. Gently pour boiling hot water over top, enough to cover.
• Let sit for 20 seconds in the hot water, then remove tomatoes and dunk in a sink of very cold water to prevent the tomatoes from becoming cooked.
• The tomato skin will peel off easily now, just grab the lifted corners from the “X” and peel back–sometimes just giving them a gentle squeeze will push them right out of their skin and no peeling back is necessary!
• If tomatoes are difficult to peel, just immerse again in boiling water for a few seconds and try again. If the first batch doesn’t peel very well, you’ll know to let the next batch start with 30 seconds or so rather than 20 you initially tried.

Next: If you need to seed the tomatoes as well, just cut them in half and gently squeeze out the seeds and watery insides.

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