Homemade tomato sauce - why is mine never as good as what I buy??

[extremelychocolateymilkroll]

It's a fairly simple recipe after all - onion, garlic, tin tomatoes, carrots - yet it never tastes as good as jars I use in an emergency - yesterday had a yummy Tomato and Basil Sauce from M+S. I let the onions cook on a low heat for about 20 minutes and yet still it doesn't taste as good. Is it because they put way more oil in it than I do? Does anyone else have this problem?

It's because they pack it full of salt probably. Your tastebuds are attuned to the processed version.

they put more oil, salt and sugar in it.

Restaurant food always taste so good because they season it very well - people are (rightly) reluctant to put so much salt in home-cooked food.

And its why takeaways taste so nice.

what soupdragon said except in some cases it is more likely to be MSG - which increases the tastiness of food by stimulating the "umami" tastebuds.

Mine taste better, my top tip is to add sugar - it really adds to the flavour.
I agree with sou[dragon though you can get very used to the overprocessed taste.

Try adding some red wine and red wine vinegar.

use more tomato paste/puree as well - they tend to use a lot of concentrated stuff in foods like this.

and sugar, add a little

Once you add the canned tomatoes, cook for a good couple hours to reduce it and get the dense flavour. And try adding tomato puree, dried oregano/basil/mixed herbs, sundried tomatoes, dash of worcester sauce, and/or a bit of bacon. Maybe a heaped teaspoon of sugar.

I have the opposite problme - readymades taste too sweet to me.

Notcitrus, could I do that in a slow cooker and bung the mince in too?

Thanks for all your suggestions. I don't think that my tastes are too attuned to processed sauces as I make my own 90% of the time and haven't used salt in years as my mother developed high bp when I was a kid so never cooked with salt which I've carried on.

ochaye - I guess so - I just brown the mince after sweating the onion, then add everything else, cover it and leave on the lowest setting of my electric hob until I go to bed. Tastes even better the next day.

My mother's wisdom is 'the longer you cook it, the better' - applies to most slow-cooked dishes.