Ripening orange tomatoes in fridge?

Posts

• Skandi Posts: 1,723

  September 2018 edited September 2018

  No tomato should ever go in the fridge, it's too cold and inhibits their ability to produce flavour and the important temperature is 12C so a fridge is much to cold. This is by the way why most shop bought fruit taste of nothing, cold storage extends their life but removes the flavour.

  In an effort to investigate a potential link between genetics and chilling-associated flavor loss, the researchers stored a variety of red ripe tomatoes at 41 degrees F (5 degrees C) for one, three, and seven days, after which the fruits were stored at room temperature for either one or three days.

  The tomatoes stored for one and three days still managed to retain their flavor, but the tomatoes stored for a week under cool conditions exhibited dramatically reduced levels of volatile compounds, the chemicals associated with aroma and taste. In some cases, levels of these compounds dropped by as much as 65 percent. Storing these tomatoes for three days at room temperature did nothing to restore the volatiles to normal levels. In follow-up taste tests, a panel of 76 judges found the chilled tomatoes to be far less flavorful than those harvested the day before.

  https://gizmodo.com/why-storing-tomatoes-in-the-fridge-is-a-bad-idea-1787928573

  
  

  So yes you'll probably have ripe tomatoes when you get home, but there won't be any point in eating them.
  

  
  
  

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• [Deleted User] Posts: 30

  September 2018

  The user and all related content has been deleted.

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• ZeroZero1 Posts: 577

  September 2018

  I always keep my tomatoes out of hte fridge - much better flavour. Did you think about Gazpacho? Take overripe tomatoes, a cucumber and other bits you like such as onion and pepper, maybe some paprika, pepper, garlice to taste, blend - viola!  A delicious cold soup.

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• MonkeyPuzzle Posts: 32

  September 2018

  3 great answers thanks and the gazpacho sounds lovely, I’ve got a lot of cucumbers too!

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• Lily Pilly Posts: 3,845

  September 2018

  My daughter in law in law adores my cucumber gin! As many as yiu can get in a large jar top with cheapest gin you can find and leave for no less that three weeks.
  sieve, may need done twice, bottle and label,

  Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”
  A A Milne

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• Ladybird4 Posts: 37,906

  September 2018

  You can ripen tomatoes by putting them in a bag with a ripe banana.
  

  Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  

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• purplerallim Posts: 5,287

  September 2018

  Have used the skins in my greenhouse to get the tomatoes going this year as the heat affected them.

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• Jolly Gary the Gardener Posts: 133

  September 2018

  Tomatoes ideal temperature for ripening when on a plant is 21-26 0C so when we had the very hot weather they did not ripen so good. Monty Dom was speaking about this on Fridays Gardeners world. I have ripened my tomatoes from my plants by placing them on a kitchen towel in the window or on the worktop. They take a few days to ripen so if you are away for two weeks time you get back they will have been ripened for perhaps a week and they will keep fresh for quite a while. 
  
  regards
  
  Jolly G

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• Green Magpie Posts: 806

  September 2018

  I have done this in the past - I picked all the tomatoes that were orange or just beginning to ripen, and put them in an ice cream box in the fridge. When I came back a week later, most of them were ready to eat.

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• Fire Posts: 19,096

  September 2018

  If fridges stall ripening toms, then they might be ideal. Store them in the fridge while you're away and take them out when you're back.
  

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