Enormous Plum: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2006

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, step right up and see the amazing Enormous Plum tomato!

When they said it was going to be enormous, I really thought bigger than a roma tomato but how big could a plum tomato get? Holy Schnitzel, Batman! These puppies are coming in between 1 and 2 pounds each.

The description from the company I bought it from reads:

This marvelous big plum variety is among the very finest tomatoes for sauce, paste and canning, and with its rich, intense flavor, wonderful for fresh eating. The 6″ long, 4″ wide deep red tomatoes look like big fat banana peppers, very large fruits, enormous flavor.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: HUGE for a plum tomato. This one was not boasting with its name. They are just slightly smaller than my hand.

Shape: Oblong like a plum tomato, but the surface is a bit bumpy.

The inside: The inside is very meaty. There seems to be two small chambers with seeds and the rest of this bad boy is meat. Walls are thick and seeds are few.

The gelatin is pretty tight, so this is not a juicy tomato.

Texture: Only a tad mealy but not nearly as much as you would expect with a plum tomato.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: Straight tomato taste. No tang or sweetness either way. Just tomato. Very simple flavor.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt helps to make this tomato a bit more sweet, but not by much. This tomato still stays rather uncomplex in its flavor.

Cooking Thoughts: This seems like this would be a great canning or sauce tomato simply for the fact that there is just so much to them and you would need to prep (less peeling and de-seeding) so few to make a decent batch. I doubt I would want to use these in raw tomato recipes just because I have many other tomatoes with a more interesting raw taste. I see these as more like the pack donkeys of the garden rather than the thoroughbreds.

Growing Notes:
This is not a big plant and it does not look like it is going to be a heavy producer. This tomato does need some serious support just because it can’t support the fruit it produces.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
Maybe. The size is fantastic, but is it worth it if I only get a dozen of them? Maybe yes, maybe no. I am going to have to think about this more. The flavor is not complex, but if you are cooking with them that does not matter as much and I do like that there would be less peeling.