In honor of the first blossoms on the Sweet 100 cherry tomato, a little epistle on the fair red or yellow fruit! The little yellow flowers opened on Thursday.
About 500 years ago, gold and silver from the New World were not only things that would transform the daily life of Old World Natives. This may sound corny, but Columbus discovered maize, chili peppers and chocolate on his voyages, thus ushering in the first wave of new staples to Europe. When the shirttail cousins Cortes and Pizarro pierced Central Mexico and Peru, they found with newly opened European Eyes the tomato and the potato. We will save the potato, chili peppers and chocolate for the future!
The Spanish saw these berries being consumed by the Native Americans; seeing that tomatoes had no adverse effect, the Spanish were early adapters of the tomatl...elsewhere on the Continent, however, people were a bit slower on the uptake. For, tomatoes--like that other great New World import, tobacco--are a member of the Nightshade family, which also includes belladonna, mandrake, and Jimsom weed. There is some truth to this, for the green leaves and vines of the tomato are poisonous...but thank heavens, the fruit is not. Even if their wholesomeness as food was suspect, they were grown as ornamentals. Fortunately, from Spain, the tomato spread to Italy, changing a cuisine that we now deeply associate with tomatoes. From there they moved northward to the cuisine of France. Later, an early American advocate of tomatoes was our future president, Thomas Jefferson, but whether he acquired his taste for tomatoes in Paris or Virginia is a matter of conjecture.
On these shores, outside of Greater New Mexico, our Yankee forbears were not keen on the tomato until the 1820's onward, but in the South, the tomato entered Creole cuisine and then spread north. And to this day, in South Louisiana, the key difference between Cajun Gumbo and Creole Gumbo...is that Creole Gumbo contains...tomatoes!
Surprisingly, although Southern Italians had been eating sliced tomatoes with salt, pepper corns and oil since the 1540s, the first documented tomato pasta sauce dates from 1839! Thank goodness someone had the insight to make red sauce! I love bechamel or butter and garlic, but sometimes I just need pasta with a long simmered marinara!
Think of the average American Child or Manchild without ketchup.....is it possible? Our ketchup is a variation on fish sauce, via mushroom and and walnut pickle sauces, with tomato ketchup arising in the period between 1800 and 1840. The high acidity of tomatoes made it one of the first and safest produce to preserve and can. By 1876 Heinz was offering bottled ketchup and by 1899 condensed soups were developed by Campbell's, thus cementing the presence of the tomato on the American table, in the pantry and later the icebox.
Let's sing praises to the tomato! As the Robin is to spring, the tomato is to summer!
The Spanish saw these berries being consumed by the Native Americans; seeing that tomatoes had no adverse effect, the Spanish were early adapters of the tomatl...elsewhere on the Continent, however, people were a bit slower on the uptake. For, tomatoes--like that other great New World import, tobacco--are a member of the Nightshade family, which also includes belladonna, mandrake, and Jimsom weed. There is some truth to this, for the green leaves and vines of the tomato are poisonous...but thank heavens, the fruit is not. Even if their wholesomeness as food was suspect, they were grown as ornamentals. Fortunately, from Spain, the tomato spread to Italy, changing a cuisine that we now deeply associate with tomatoes. From there they moved northward to the cuisine of France. Later, an early American advocate of tomatoes was our future president, Thomas Jefferson, but whether he acquired his taste for tomatoes in Paris or Virginia is a matter of conjecture.
On these shores, outside of Greater New Mexico, our Yankee forbears were not keen on the tomato until the 1820's onward, but in the South, the tomato entered Creole cuisine and then spread north. And to this day, in South Louisiana, the key difference between Cajun Gumbo and Creole Gumbo...is that Creole Gumbo contains...tomatoes!
Surprisingly, although Southern Italians had been eating sliced tomatoes with salt, pepper corns and oil since the 1540s, the first documented tomato pasta sauce dates from 1839! Thank goodness someone had the insight to make red sauce! I love bechamel or butter and garlic, but sometimes I just need pasta with a long simmered marinara!
Think of the average American Child or Manchild without ketchup.....is it possible? Our ketchup is a variation on fish sauce, via mushroom and and walnut pickle sauces, with tomato ketchup arising in the period between 1800 and 1840. The high acidity of tomatoes made it one of the first and safest produce to preserve and can. By 1876 Heinz was offering bottled ketchup and by 1899 condensed soups were developed by Campbell's, thus cementing the presence of the tomato on the American table, in the pantry and later the icebox.
Let's sing praises to the tomato! As the Robin is to spring, the tomato is to summer!
