In Mexico, what is the difference between a "tomate" and a "jitomate"?

Question

Everywhere online I look it says they are two different ways to say tomato, but I have a recipe from Mexico that asks for both as separate items.

Tiene que haber una diferencia entre los dos. Por favor, escriba solamente si conoce bien la cultura de México.

Answer 1

A jitomate is a red tomato, like a beefsteak.  A tomate would commonly be any color tomatillo, but could also be just about any tomato that is not red.  Recipes that require tomate verde need green tomatillos and so on.

Answer 2

Nothing really, except they may mean, a tomatoe and tomatoe sauce. My husband is Mexican and that's what he said.

Answer 3

Then I suggest you use tomatillos as the tomate and regular tomatos as the jitomate.

I do have a couple of recipes that call for both tomatillos and tomatos.

Answer 4

I hear the same in Mexico when I go down there:

Tomate y el jitomate son apenas diferenciales del dialecto. En Minnesota llaman una cazuela un " dish" caliente; , y adentro lo llamamos una cazuela.

Tomatillos no se relaciona con los tomates, aunque parecen un tomate.

Now that we have that out of the way, if you'd like a KILLER recipe for tomatillo salsa, email me at my 360 profile page.....

Christopher

Answer 5

The tomatillo is also known as the husk tomato, jamberry, husk cherry, mexican tomato, or ground cherry, although these names can also refer to other species in the Physalis genus. In Spanish it is called tomate de cáscara, tomate de fresadilla, tomate milpero, tomate verde ("green tomato"), tomatillo (Mexico [this term means "little tomato" elsewhere]), miltomate (Mexico, Guatemala), or simply tomate (in which case the tomato is called jitomate). Even though tomatillos are sometimes called "green tomatoes", they should not be confused with green, unripe tomatoes. (Tomatoes are in the same family, but a different genus.)