Cooking For Engineers

[Schlacht]

Adding a little or a pinch of sugar will help to control the acid of tomato sauce. I also used to put sugar when i making a tomato sauce, because a friend of mine also suggest this tips.

[Guest]

There are reasons why the acid is reduced when you add sugar, or potatoes, or carrots. They all contain starch. There is a chemical reaction between the sugars in the foods and the acid in the tomatoes. You form a compound called an ester, which typically has a sweet or neutral flavor to it. It's not the contrast in taste that reduces the acidity. On a similar note, when you add meat to a sauce, it accomplishes the same thing. Or even olive oil. The fats in the meat or oil also react with the acid in the tomatoes to form fatty esters. These also taste somewhat sweet. The time it takes to neutralize the acid in tomato depends on what you're neutralizing it with. Sugar is very fast, while fat is much slower. That's why when folks say they need to cook their sauce for a long time before it tastes less acidic, they are really talking about the neutralization of acid with fat. Try adding more olive oil to your sauce, and you will see what I mean. Oil and tomatoes don't mix (like oil and water!). However, when you cook the sauce for long periods of time, the oil eventually disappears. Because it forms these fatty esters, so it's really no longer olive oil anymore..... Time to make the ester!!! LOL

[Diane B.]

Really very interesting, Guest! Thanks for the details... explains a lot of things and makes sense.

(Do join, or at least keep commenting/explaining )

[marian_anson]

this is a nice thread. and now i know why sugar is added in tomato sauce.