想吃美味番茄 那就讓它遠離冰箱

The tomato hitching a ride home in your grocery bag today is not the tomato it used to be.

在你買了番茄裝進購物袋裏拿回家的功夫，它就已經跟過去不一樣了。

No matter if you bought plum, cherry or heirloom, if you wanted the tastiest tomato, you should have picked it yourself and eaten it immediately.

不管你買的是李子番茄、櫻桃番茄，還是純種番茄，要想吃到味道最好的番茄，就得自己採摘，然後當場吃掉。

That’s because a tomato’s flavor — made up of sugars, acids and chemicals called volatiles — degrades as soon as it’s picked from the vine.

那是因爲番茄的味道——由糖、酸和幾種被稱爲揮發物的化學物質構成——自它從藤上被摘下來的那一刻開始，就在逐漸減弱。

There’s only one thing you can do now: Keep it out of the fridge.

現在你能做的只有一件事：讓它遠離冰箱。

Researchers at The University of Florida have found in a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that when tomatoes are stored at the temperature kept in most refrigerators, irreversible genetic changes take place that erase some of their flavors forever.

佛羅里達大學(The University of Florida)的研究人員在週一發表於《美國國家科學院院刊》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)的一項研究中發現，番茄在大多數冰箱保持的溫度下保存時，會發生不可逆轉的基因變化，由此永遠失去它們的一些味道。

Harry J. Klee, a professor of horticultural sciences who led the study, and his colleagues took two varieties of tomatoes — an heirloom and a more common modern variety — and stored them at 41 degrees Fahrenheit before letting them recover at room temperature (68 degrees Fahrenheit).

領導這項研究的園藝學教授哈里•J•克利(Harry J. Klee)及其同事使用了兩個品種的番茄——純種番茄和一種更常見的現代品種。

When they looked at what happened inside the tomatoes in cold temperatures, Dr Klee said the subtropical fruit went into shock, producing especially damaging changes after a week of storage.

他們將這些番茄儲存在41華氏度（約合5攝氏度）的溫度下，之後再把它們轉移到室溫（68華氏度，約合20攝氏度）下。克利表示，對番茄在低溫下的內部變化進行研究後，他們發現這種亞熱帶水果進入了休克狀態，在低溫儲存一週後發生了損失極大的變化。

After they were allowed to warm up, even for a day, some genes in the tomatoes that created its flavor volatiles had turned off and stayed off.

恢復室溫後——哪怕只有一天——番茄中一些產生其味道揮發物的基因便不再起作用，而且無法恢復。

It’s like a symphony: Remove the violins and the woodwinds, Dr Klee wrote in an email.

就像是一首交響樂：去掉小提琴和木管樂器，克利在一封郵件中寫道。

You still have noise, but it’s not the same.

你還能聽到樂聲，但它已經不一樣了。

Add back just the violins and it still isn’t right.

再把小提琴加回去，也還是不對。

You need that orchestra of 30 or more chemicals in the right balance to give you a good tomato.

你需要那30種或更多的化學物質像交響樂一樣平衡組合在一起，纔能有一個好味道的番茄。

When you can get fresh tomatoes, Dr Klee recommends storing them at room temperature, to preserve their flavor, and eating them within a week of bringing them home.

根據克利博士的建議，如果你能買到新鮮的番茄，就在室溫下進行保存，以便保持它們的風味，而且最好在買回家一週內把它們吃完。

If you see your grocer storing them at temperatures that are too cold, tell them not to, he says.

如果你看到雜貨店老闆把它們儲存在溫度很低的冰箱裏，就告訴他們不要那麼做。

But this research may seem mostly academic.

但這項研究的意義似乎主要在於學術方面。

The average American consumes nearly 20 pounds of fresh tomatoes a year.

普通美國人每人每年平均會吃掉將近20磅（約合18斤）新鮮番茄。

And despite researchers, industries and farmers all striving to create the tastiest tomatoes, there are some things we can’t yet control.

此外，儘管研究人員、企業和農民全都竭力產出更美味的番茄，但有些因素我們還無法控制。

After all, most of the tomatoes we eat out of season are plucked from their vines probably in Florida or Mexico, just as they started to ripen.

畢竟，我們吃的大多數反季節番茄剛開始成熟，可能就被人在佛羅里達州或者墨西哥從藤蔓上摘了下來。

They are sorted, sized, graded and packed into a box with other tomatoes, totaling 25 pounds.

它們被儲存，測量大小，劃分等級，並和其他番茄一道被裝箱，每箱重25磅。

Then they stay in a humidity and temperature-controlled room (no less than 55 degrees Fahrenheit) and ingest ethylene, a gas to make them ripen, for two to four days before being transported on a temperature-controlled truck to a warehouse.

接着，它們要在一個溼度和溫度都受到控制的房間裏（不低於55華氏度）待上兩到四天，吸收一種用於催熟的氣體——乙烯，隨後被裝上一輛控溫的卡車，運往一個倉庫。

There they are repackaged, re-sorted and shipped to your grocer.

在倉庫裏，它們被重新包裝，重新揀選，並送到你家附近的食品雜貨店。

There, if demand is low or if there’s no room, they may be stored in a fridge, and by the time you get them, it’s been a week to ten days.

在那裏，如果需求量不大或者空間有限，它們會被放在一臺冰箱裏儲存，等到你買下它們的時候，可能已經過去一個星期甚至十天了。

It’s probably never going to equal the one that matured in your backyard over the 80 or 90 days that you grew it, but it beats stone soup said Reggie Brown, a manager at Florida Tomato Committee, which produces up to half of America’s fresh tomatoes in the winter.

它或許永遠也無法媲美你在自家後院種的、經過八九十天自然成熟的番茄，但比石頭湯強，佛羅里達番茄委員會(Florida Tomato Committee)的負責人雷吉•布朗(Reggie Brown)說。冬季裏，美國多達一半的新鮮番茄是由該委員會供應的。

In cold months, should you endure a tomatoless diet? There are alternatives, says Dan Barber, chef at Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, who has received multiple James Beard Awards.

在寒冷的月份裏，是不是該忍受沒有番茄的飯菜呢？紐約藍山餐廳(Blue Hill)及石穀倉藍山餐廳(Blue Hill at Stone Barns)的大廚、多次獲得詹姆斯•比爾德獎(James Beard Awards)的丹•巴伯(Dan Barber)說，還有其他選擇。

My advice for consumers is don’t eat a tomato in the winter, he said.

我給顧客的建議是，冬天別吃番茄，他說。

Make a tomato jam in the summer and store and preserve it.

可以在夏天製作番茄醬並妥善儲存。

Use dried tomatoes from the store.

從商店裏買番茄幹來用。

Make a tomato ketchup and can it — you can have it for the whole winter.

做好番茄醬並裝在罐子裏——可以吃上一整個冬天。