This Viral Hack Is Undoubtedly the Easiest Way to Peel Tomatoes

Tomatoes are present in sandwiches, salads, and in all sorts of cooked applications year-round, but it’s always a small shock to the senses to have a fresh, ripe tomato in peak season. It almost tastes like a different piece of produce entirely when compared to its off-season sibling. Due to tomatoes' relatively short range of peak availability, it feels like a bit of a game to try to squeeze out enough tomatoey goodness to last you until next year. That means tomato sandwiches, BLTs, and Caprese salads on repeat, as well as a wild sprint to preserve as many tomatoes as possible for cooking throughout the rest of the year.

Whether you’re prepping tomatoes for canning or planning to make a simple tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes, this viral video showed us the easiest way to peel tomatoes.

Instead of blanching tomatoes and waiting for them to cool before peeling them for canning, Tik Tok user @homewithhayli uses a more hands-off approach. Stick whole tomatoes in the freezer and let them freeze. Once the tomatoes are frozen and you’re ready to can them or cook them, take them out of the freezer and let them thaw completely. The tomatoes will look slightly wrinkly once they’ve thawed entirely. From there, the tomato skins will peel right off.

While you can use this method as-is, some commenters on the video advised taking the time to core and score the tomatoes before freezing them to make peeling after the tomatoes thaw even easier.

Commenters approve of the method when using tomatoes for cooked applications. One person said, “I sliced and cored and threw in ziplock bags all last summer and then made sauce when the weather cooled down in the fall. Game changer!” Another added, “This is for when you have so many tomatoes they're just going to go bad anyway. This is genius for using all the extra for cooking!”

This technique is best reserved for a time when you’re planning to can your tomatoes or cook them down into something like a sauce or jam. Freezing and thawing do affect tomato texture, so don’t use it on a sandwich that’s begging for a thick slab of fresh tomato.