# Confit Tomatoes



## golikpaul (May 6, 2011)

I have an overload of tomatoes right now..they got double ordered so we have an extra case of both romo and 5x6's. We dont go through the 5x6's that quick so I was going to make some confit tomato out of them.

Anyway, I know they basically just need de-seeded and brushed with olive oil and herbs and slow roasted in the oven. Should I do a quick blanch to skin them too? Or do I need the skin to hold it all together?

The dish I had in mind was Pan-Seared Corvina w/ Sweet Corn and Fava Bean Rissoto, Broccolini and Confit Tomato Puree as the sauce.

Any tips are appriciated! -Paul


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## chefonfire (May 8, 2010)

If you are going to puree the tomatoes, I would not bother going through the motions of peeling or deseeding. I would roast quartered tomatoes tossed with salt, olive oil & herb (skin side down) until you get to the level of concentration that you are looking for, make your sauce, puree, then pass through chinois.


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## someday (Aug 15, 2003)

The skins will just peel off once the tomatoes are roasted as well.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Try removing skin and deseed prior Confit. A confit is simply a roated tomato puree. Another thing you can do is peel and seed then freeze, you can use later on for tomato or a Marinara sauce, or even a Tomato Bisque or soup.


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## ezekiel (May 22, 2011)

Im confused. The definition on confit is for the substance to be completely immersed in its own rendered fat? and slow cooked etc? and then even preserved in its own fat.  putting some oil on some tomatoes and putting them in the oven does not generally mean its confit. Maybe its a "losely" used term...


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

Ezekiel said:


> Im confused. The definition on confit is for the substance to be completely immersed in its own rendered fat? and slow cooked etc? and then even preserved in its own fat. putting some oil on some tomatoes and putting them in the oven does not generally mean its confit. Maybe its a "losely" used term...


Same here, I thought that coating tomatoes with some fat and then roasting in the oven was "oven roasted tomatoes", BT,WTHDIK /img/vbsmilies/smilies/crazy.gif


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## cookitup (Sep 12, 2007)

Not too sure what 5x6's are, But if you quarter or half the tomatoes depending on size, drizzle with olive oil herbs and garlic and slow roast in the combi overnight at 50deg C (Roast my baby plum tomatoes at this temp might want to try higher temp 90? if they're alot bigger), you will get a lovely roast tomato. Other options include as I think someone else mentioned, Roast them in a slightly more moderate oven then make a nice sauce, mouli them so you don't have to peel or deseed. Should freeze quite well.


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## thetincook (Jun 14, 2002)

Confit, generally speaking, just means something preserved in oil/fat or sugar syrup. It can apply to fruits and veggies as well as proteins.

5x6's are a size grade for tomatoes. That means there are 30 tomatoes in a layer (5 rows of 6) in a standard sized tomato case. You usually only buy them if you need even slices for burgers and sandwiches.

When I worked at this upscale Spanish place, we made tomato confit by blanching, seeding, and coring roma tomatoes. Toss them with salt and olive oil, and put them in a single layer on a sheet pan. (I think we sandwiched them between two pans to flatten them out) Then we dried them out in a slow oven. You can't have the temp too high, or you will end up cooking them and the texture will get mushy. The resulting tomato 'petals' looked really nice.


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## cosanostra (May 20, 2011)

Whenever I did this in fine dining joints I would blanch, peel, quarter and de-seed the tomatoes then arrange them on silicon paper under the hot lamps, season, bit of thyme and a drizzle of oil and leave them for most of the day or overnight.

This best replicates them being left out in the sun unless you have a good oven that is accurate at very low temperatures.


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## demo121 (May 16, 2011)

Our Tomato Tar Tar last year was based around the following basic prep process ... Blanch romas, peel, core, half, seed. place into a 4 or 6 inch hotel pan depending on volume. cover with oil, neutral oil, not EVOO as it has a flavor and could turn bitter or impart a flavor you dont want, we used grapeseed because it doesnt solidify very much under refrigeration. add some garlic cloves, thyme, ect. cover with plastic then aluminum. cook at 275 for several hours or until the tomatoes are tender but not mush. cool. then for service you have to drain the tomatoes for a little while and even squeeze them out through a cheese cloth folded over a couple of times. Save the oil for mixing into your puree or tar tar or what have you. it makes nice viniagrette oil too if your using it on a one time basis and not repeating the process and you can re-use the confit oil if your making the confit on a consistent basis after straining it out.  the tomatos will last for more than a week under refrigeration if you leave them in the oil, they can break down a bit the longer they stay in the oil, but that isnt a problem if you are pureeing them.

- J.


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## Iceman (Jan 4, 2011)

LOL. I agree w/ Ezekiel and Pete on the definition, but I guess since words is just words, what difference really. If you leave the seeds in you could be asking for a bitter and/or overly acid puree. I don't ever remember seeds roasting up all that nicely either.


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## bazza (Apr 2, 2007)

So far as the definition goes, cooking techniques and descriptions can be traditional or progressive. The French verb to "confit" actually means to "preserve" and was originally applied to fruit.

Lets open our minds for a moment and look at chefs like Adria, Blumenthal and Atherton who create and describe dishes that blow all of the rules out of the water, where do they fit in?

I remember a random post on cheftalk a while back from a student who wanted to make freeform creme brulees for a buffet. I thought it was a great idea and after adding gelatine and agar to the mix I made some and they turned out great. It was not and could not be a tradtional creme brulee but then neither is a raspberry, amaretto, pistachio or lemon brulee. Forgive me for rambling but do you see what I am getting at? Experimentation and creativity bring new concepts to cooking and whilst the old ones are firmly ingrained we really should make way for new ones too. Confit tomato, why not?


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

If you ever watched the show Chopped you will see how words and definitions are made up on the spot depending on what ingredients they have. One guy had walnuts and a blood orange , avacado, snapper,. His finished dish was. Pan seared snapper with a California, Citrus avacado, walnut glaze and a  Polonaise Gratin.??????    Polonaise is a Russian Term  the rest just improvised.


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

_Forgive me for rambling but do you see what I am getting at? _

Actually, Bazza, I don't.

I don't think anyone objects to the idea of experimentation and creativity. What's under fire is the progressive broadenting of standard terms to the point they may become meaningless. Ferran certainly has pushed the culinary limits. But he doesn't take one of his creations using molecular gastronomy and slap a classic name to it.

While it's true that language evolves, it should do so in a rational progression. Your example of brulee is perfect. What we see is a broadening of the word so that instead of applying to one specific dessert it is used to describe the technique. If you call something a brulee, most cooks would immediately know that somewhere along the line you're going to glaze the dish with sugar and hit it with a torch.

Look at the various ways presented in this forum for making tomato "confit." Not only are they different, they do not describe confit as we know the technique. Indeed, if we accept these approaches as confitting, then anytime you oil something and pop it in the oven you could call it a confit. Which makes the term, from the viewpoint of communicating, meaningless.

It's like when the health-food proponents instruct is to "saute in a little water....." Say what? Just how do you do that, when cooking in liquid is, variously, steaming, poaching, boiling, or stewing?

Or when, to shirtail on Ed's comment, the MC or judges on Chopped describe something as a "zucchini carpaccio." Excuse me? Does that mean anything you serve raw is a carpaccio? Hmmmmmm? I'll have a dozen oysters, please. Make 'em carpaccio.

The simple fact is that you can call barnyard effluent rosewater if you want. But it remains bulls*it.


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## bazza (Apr 2, 2007)

KYHeirloomer said:


> _Forgive me for rambling but do you see what I am getting at? _
> 
> Actually, Bazza, I don't.
> [h2] [/h2][h1]Confit[/h1]
> ...


I think that most people misinterpret the word confit, it does not only apply to meats as carpaccio does, (ok carpaccio is fish too). Confit means to preserve and it can be applied to a variety of foods. I don't see anything wrong with tomato confit but to say confitting would be Englishing a French word.

I agree that a lot of people misuse terms and sometimes they are just awful. I have recently seen duck confit pizza in London, now thats what I call fusion!!!


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## rgm2 (May 28, 2011)

I am sorry, but to bastardize a term is not progressive. If you are going to be creative in the use of ingredients then be just as creative in the words you call it. If we bastardize the terms to far people will not be able to understand what you are trying to convey when you name something. 

Slow roasting tomatoes is not really a way of persevering them. FFS, you should all be calling canned tomatoes confit then. Find a new way to describe them.


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## boy named sous (Aug 27, 2012)

Yes.  The french constantly make fun of us for re-writing their language in the culinary realm.  Its not our fault that they have a monopoly on the culinary language, and that Americans are natural born poets who like words that sound cool when they roll off the tongue and give a sentence rhyme and meter.  Sometimes when your a chef its fun to use the wrong words for certain things because they sound cool, and if your doing a cooking demo at the whole foods or some lame wine party who cares because 99% of the people around don't know the difference anyway.  They are just impressed you chunked a little Pierre at them.  Oh, and that four dollar litte green bottle of water your drinking with the fru fru name is probably city water.  French city water, but never the less city water.  Back to basics.  If you want a tomato confit you slow cook the "Maters" (Sometimes I say maters.  That is ******* for tomato.) emersed in some kind of oil or fat, and let it cool down in that oil or fat and stay in a cold state in that oil and/or fat to preserve in a refrigerated state.  This will in fact accomplish your goal of getting longer life from them.  I worked with a guy one time that did this with golden grape tomatoes and chilled them down.  He made some canapes which were some kind of crustini, with a white bean puree, a thin slice of proscuitto, and one of these chilled tomatoes.  The oil he slow roasted them in was heavily seasoned with peppercorns and basil and all of that flavor was sucked right back into those tomatoes I guess during the chilling process.  The result was a crisp outer layer as if the tomato was still in its raw state, but the inside was almost liquified and like under pressure or something so when you bit in to it there was a flavor explosion.  Great effect.  This was like six years ago and I can still tell you everything I ever watched him cook.  That Chef's name is David Meyers in Austin, Texas.  Worked at several high-end restaurants and has two culinary degrees one of which is from the CIA.  I am unsure if he is cooking now or where, but if you find him eat his food.  Fruit confit would have to be in an acidic simple syrup and sealed.  Meat would be preferably in it's own fat or another source of fat.  Confit literally translates in old French to preserve.  So you were on the right track with using this word in relation to getting longer life from your over abundance of Tomatoes, however deseeding, and skinning, and pureeing and whatever else is arbirary to the term confit unless you canned or jarred something afterwards.


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## boy named sous (Aug 27, 2012)

I did some free form creme brulee.  Did not need agar or gelatin.  Cooked them in silicon molds and popped right out.  They were round disks.  Squared off one side like a quarter of an inch and stood it up on the plate like a flat tire.  Sugared and burned the outer rim instead of the flat top.  Very cool presentation.  My second attempt I added two more egg yolks to the batter than the recipe called for and added a pinch of salt to it.  This made it more workable.


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## grillbeast (Jul 18, 2012)

Thank you to the few people who have stood up for the commonly accepted definition of confit. Drizzling with oil and slow roasting is not confit.


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## lord toranaga (Mar 27, 2012)

one idea is, house made smoked tomato paste, it is tasty and has long shelf life

i have always done confit tomato submerged in olive oil


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