Can tomato paste be substituted for tomato purée

tomatoes

A recipe for meat loaf from an Australian book (apparently terminology differs from country to country) calls for 1 cup (250 mL/8 fl oz) of tomato purée, and 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce.

Wikipedia's article on tomato purée claims that the main difference between purée and paste is the thickness, whereas tomato sauce has a different taste.

Can I substitute tomato paste for the tomato purée? If not, is it because the taste, or the amount of water, differs?

If so, how much "triple concentrated" tomato paste should be substituted for a cup of tomato purée?

Edit: the tomato paste ingredients are: concentrated tomato (98%), salt. Link to the product page.

Best Answer

I'll weigh in on this one, having extensive cooking experience on both sides of the pond. The terminology is indeed confusing when it comes to tomato products. By tomato sauce they don't mean canned tomato sauce like you get in the states, they actually mean ketchup! As for puree there's two types, one is just what it means, pureed tomatoes in a can, and the other is super-concentrated like what in the US is called tomato paste and comes in a tube.

Given it's this recipe is asking for 250ml of puree they must mean the canned stuff, as adding that much concentrate would be hideous. To replicate UK/AU style tomato puree I'd use a can of tomato sauce with a half mini-can of tomato paste to thicken it up a bit. That still sounds like a bit too much liquid for my taste.

Alternatively you can use my mom's technique and add a can of concentrated tomato soup to the mix, it makes a great meat-loaf!

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