Previous | Next

Tomatoes were brought over to Europe by the Spanish in the 1500s, and took off right away. Well, not right away. They were much smaller, tarter, and often shades of yellow, and there was some suspicion that they might be poisonous. Italians took to them right away, but outside Italy people continued to regard them with suspicion until the 1800s.

But like many things, Tomatoes ain't what they used to be. Aside from the glorious few summer months when local field Tomatoes flood the stores and the markets, we have gotten used to tasteless Tomatoes in our shops. Tomatoes are harvested green, hard and unripe because they ship better that way, suffering less damage from handling and jostling during transport. When they arrive, they are "ripened" artificially using ethylene gas, which unfortunately only ripens the colour, not the flavour. The gas doesn't cause the banal flavour; that is the result of the Tomatoes being plucked prematurely away from the nutrients that they would have gotten on the plant's stem, and no amount of gas or time in a window sill can make up for that.

If you are cooking with Tomatoes out of season, in fact, you are far better off to use Canned Tomatoes. They will have been harvested and canned when naturally ripe, and so have better flavour -- plus they will be way cheaper and easier to use in cooked sauces, with a lot of the work having been done for you.

When buying Tomatoes in season, resist the instinct to judge them on how pretty they look. Smell the stem end of the Tomato, and check for the scent of the plant itself. A good plant scent is a pretty good indication of a very flavourful Tomato. Sometimes the less-pretty ones will be the far wiser choice.


Peeling Tomatoes

What you are supposed to do
Tomato skins do tend to toughen during cooking, which is why just about every recipe you see will have you do the right thing and peel thing.

Peeling them, unfortunately, is quite fiddly. Fill a sink or large bowl with very cold water, and bring to the boil a large pot of water. Meanwhile, cut an each on the bottom of each Tomato. Drop a few Tomatoes at a time into the boiling water, leave them there for 10 to 15 seconds, then remove from the water with tongs or a slotted spoon and place them in the cold water. When cool, use a paring knife to help coax the skins off.

If you've gone to all this bother, and have any amount of Tomato skins to speak of, you might as well make the most of your work and make a Tomato peel powder which you can use to jazz up salads, pastas or devilled eggs. Lightly oil a sheet of waxed (or parchment paper), place it on a baking sheet, distribute the Tomato skins on it and bake for about 45 minutes at 225 F / 110 C. Pulverize the dried skins in a blender, coffee or spice mill, etc, till they are a fine powder, and store refrigerated in a sealed container for up to a month, or freeze for up to 6 months.

Bugger that
Large pieces of Tomato skin are indeed quite tough or stringy when cooked. Though if the pieces are smaller, it's not as though you'd notice. And given that, can you really be asked to peel Tomatoes? When making a dish that involves cooked Tomatoes, if you buy Canned Tomatoes, that solves the issue, because they are already skinned: someone else -- or something else, presumably a very clever machine -- has done the work for you. Sometimes, though, especially when in season, you won't be able to resist a major bargain buy on fresh Tomatoes, which you can stew into a sauce for freezing. Some of the skin tends to detach itself as you stew the Tomatoes, which you can skim off from the surface with a slotted spoon. As for the rest, when the stewed Tomatoes have mostly cooled, just whiz them all coarsely in a blender, and if anyone wants to try to find any identifiable pieces of skin after that, let them. The prize is they get to keep and frame any they find.

Cooking Tips
To seed Tomatoes, cut in half cross-wise. Squeeze each half over a bowl, saving the seeds and pulp for sauces. That is, if you can be bothered to seed them. Suggestion: only do this for baked, stuffed Tomato recipes; otherwise, if the recipe is terribly insistent that you seed them, toss the recipe out the window, or tell the recipe writer to get her arse over here right now to do it herself.

A pinch of sugar enhances the sweetness of Tomatoes, whether you are cooking them or serving them fresh sliced or chopped.

Baked stuffed Tomatoes sometimes collapse outward while cooking; cooking them in greased muffins tins will give them support.

Substitutes
There isn't one, really, but with their being so readily available, and affordable, there is no real need for a substitute.

Nutrition
The highest concentration of Vitamin C in Tomatoes is found is the jellylike material at the middle surrounding the seeds (another reason to tell fussy recipe writers to take a hike.)

Overall, an excellent source of vitamin C, and a good source of vitamin A.

Tomatoes contain antioxidants called flavenols (which are what make Tomatoes red). There are two bits of good news about this: the first is that such antioxidants may help to reduce aging effects and risks of heart disease and cancer; the second is that these antioxidants in Tomatoes aren't affected by cooking or processing.

Because Tomatoes belong to the Nightshade family, or to put more fine a point on it, the deadly Nightshade family, some Europeans felt that Tomatoes were poisonous and it took several centuries for Tomatoes to become the pervasive staple that they are. Have no doubt, though, that the leaves and stems of the plant are indeed poisonous: never ever use these, even as a garnish.

It's a health myth that acidic fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes, can make worse the condition of an arthritis sufferer. The acidity level is nothing compared to the acidity already in our body -- in our stomachs.

Equivalents
1 pound (450g) Tomatoes = 3 medium round = 8 plum = 2 cups chopped
2 1/2 pounds (1.1 kg) Tomatoes = 3 cups chopped and drained fresh Tomatoes = 2 1/2 cups chopped and cooked Tomatoes = 2 1/2 cups canned Tomatoes in puree or juice
25 to 30 cherry Tomatoes = 1 pint/punnet = 2 cups chopped Tomatoes
1 medium Tomato = 3/4 - 1 cup of chopped Tomato

Storage
Try never to refrigerate fresh Tomatoes. Cold temperatures make Tomato flesh mealy, and does something to the flavour. Store at room temperature.

If you have unripe Tomatoes, place them in a paper bag in a dark spot for a few days. This works far better than placing them in the sun, as placing them in the sun can often soften them. But before you serve a fresh Tomato, consider placing it in a sunny spot for a few hours. It helps to wake up the taste.

Freezing
(Note: some advise to peel first before doing any of this.)
As stewed tomatoes: Wash. Chop, simmer for 15 minutes. Let stand to cool. Pack and freeze, leaving space for expansion.

As juice: Wash, chop. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes. Pass through sieve or blender. Let cool. Pack and freeze, leaving space for expansion.

Raw: Cut into chunks. Pack, squeezing them to release juice to help cover them. Freeze, leaving space for expansion. Use for cooking.

Whole: Rinse, put on a baking sheet, place in freezer overnight. In the morning, bag them and return to freezer. To use, thaw, and use as directed in your recipes that involve cooking Tomatoes.

Puréed: Purée them in a blender, strain excess liquid off, pack in freezer bags and freeze.

On the whole, though, it is better to stew Tomatoes, then pack them in freezer bags and freeze. That way, with the Tomatoes being stewed, they are ready to go for quick sauces.

History
The Spanish brought some Tomatoes back to Europe as early as 1523. These were nothing like ours today, though. They were very hairy plants that had a green powder all over them that brushed off on you, and the fruit itself was lumpy and yellowy. So, they weren't exactly photogenic. Then, to make things worse, in 1544 a botanist realized that they were a part of the deadly nightshade family. A veritable PR disaster.

Nevertheless, Italians were growing the Tomato in the 1550s. The Italian name for it is still "pomodoro", meaning golden apple, because it was yellow before they started breeding and refining it. It's thanks to the patience of Italian gardeners that we have the beautiful Tomatoes we have today -- they bred away the lumps, the thick skins, increased its plumpness, and bred in the gorgeous red colours. The Italians used Tomatoes in salads -- it wasn't until the 1800s that mentions started appearing of Tomato sauces on pasta.

Elsewhere in Europe and in North America, Tomatoes were grown as a non-edible garden curiosity up until the end of the 1700s. By 1812, they were being used as food in New Orleans; by the mid-1830s, people in the North Eastern States were also growing them as food (though some cooking instructions specified cooking Tomatoes for at least three hours to ensure they lost their "raw" taste.) In England, the adoption of Tomatoes as a food item roughly kept the same pace as in America, but also mostly just for sauces and some soups. By the 1900s, the Tomato had pretty much gained international acceptance for eating both cooked and raw.

Europeans have always treated Tomatoes as a vegetable.

Literature & Lore
The word Tomato comes from an Aztec or Nahuatl word, "tomatl."

Language Notes
Tomatoes (with an "e) as a plural is relatively recent. In her 1824 book called "The Virginia Housewife", Mary Randolph spelt it "Tomatos."

In Germany, consumers have nick-named the standard supermarket-type of flavourless, artificially-ripened tomatoes "Wasserbomben" (water bombs.)

Also called:

Other entries for:

Tomatoes
Amber Jewel Tomatoes, Black Tomatoes, Canned Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Delizia Tomatoes, Golden Cherub Tomatoes, Golden Delight Tomatoes, Grape Tomatoes, Marmande Tomatoes, Melrow Tomatoes, Pink Jester Tomatoes, Plum Tomatoes, Pome dei Moro Tomatoes, Principe Borghese Tomatoes, Santa Grape Tomatoes, Semi-Dried Tomatoes, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Tomatillos, Tomato Paste, Tomato Purée, Vittoria Tomatoes

Other entries for:

Vegetables
Agave, Artichokes, Asparagus, Brassica Family, Canned Vegetables, Cardoons, Celery, Corn, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Frozen Vegetables, Garlic, Gourds, Horseradish Tree, Leafy Vegetables, Lotus, Mixed Vegetables, Mushrooms, Pak Wan, Peas, Peppers, Root Vegetables, Sago Palm, Seaweed, Spinach, Sprouts, Squash, Viscous Vegetables