All About Tomatoes - History of Tomatoes
Purchasing, Storing, and Peeling Fresh Tomatoes

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TOMATO EQUIVALENTS

2 1/2 pounds fresh tomatoes equals 3 cups chopped and drained fresh tomatoes.

1 (16-oz) can equals 2 cups drained tomatoes or 1 cup undrained tomatoes.

1 (28-oz) can equals 3 cups undrained or 2 to 2 1/2 cups drained tomatoes.

1 (35-oz) can equals 3 cups undrained or 2 to 2 1/2 cups drained tomatoes.

25 to 30 cherry tomatoes equals 2 cups chopped tomatoes.

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste equals 3/4 cup.

An average bushel of tomatoes weighs about 53 lb (25 kg). When quartered and canned, this quantity of tomatoes will yield 15 to 20 – 1 large jar. You’ll need 2 ˝ to 3 lb (1.2 to 1.4 kg) fresh tomatoes per 1 large mason jar.


 

Linda's Favorite Tomato Recipes:

Avocado-Corn Salsa

 Blue Baked Tomatoes

Brenda's Salsa

Baked Tomatoes with Mint and Basil

Bruschetta

Bruschetta-Style Salad

Cherry Tomato Salad with Tarragon

 Fresh Mozzarella Penna Pasta

Garden Fresh Tomato Soup

Gazpacho Soup

Gazpacho Soup with Avocado Creme Fraiche

Insalata Caprese Salad
(Tomato and Mozarella Salad)

Italian Panzanella Salad (Bread Salad)

Linguine with Tomato and Basil

Mozarella Martini with Tomato Consommé

Salsa Verde

Spanish Tomato Toast

 Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

Stuffed Caprise Tomatoes

Sweet Corn, Mozzarella, and Tomato Salad

Tangy Tomato Aspic

Tomatoes and Cream

Tomato-Basil Crab Bisque

Tomato Pie with Potato Crust

Tomatoes Stuffed with Tuna, Capers, and Herbs

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans eat more than 22 pounds of tomatoes every year. More than half this amount is eaten in the form of ketchup and tomato sauce.

Technically a tomato is a fruit, since it is the ripened ovary of a plant. In 1893, the supreme court ruled in the case of "NIX vs. HEDDEN" that tomatoes were to be considered vegetables.

There are more than 4,000 varieties of tomatoes, ranging from the small, marble-size cherry tomato to the giant Ponderosa that can weigh more than 3 pounds.
 

Purchasing Tomatoes

Tomatoes don't develop adequate flavor unless allowed to ripen on the vine. Seek out locally grown tomatoes whenever possible. They may not be as "pretty" as store bought, but beauty, of course, is only skin deep.

Note: Fragrance is a better indicator of a good tomato than color. Use your nose and smell the stem end. The stem should retain the garden aroma of the plant itself - if it doesn't, your tomato will lack flavor and, as far as I'm concerned, will be good only for decoration!

Since fresh tomatoes are summer fare and off-season tomatoes are rarely flavorful, substitute canned Italian plum tomatoes in cooked dishes. Cook for ten minutes to reduce the liquid and enhance the taste.

Storing & Ripening Tomatoes

NEVER REFRIGERATE FRESH TOMATOES! Cold temperatures make the flesh of a tomato pulpy and destroys the flavor.

To ripen, place green or unripened tomatoes in a brown paper bag and place in a dark spot for three or four days, depending on the degree of greenness. Do not put tomatoes in the sun to ripen - this softens them.

Preserving Tomatoes

Freezing Tomatoes: 

  • The simplest way to preserve tomatoes is to freeze them whole. Just rinse them, spread them out on a cookie sheet, and freeze overnight. When frozen, put them in a freezer bag and return to the freezer. To use, remove from bag and thaw. When thawed, slip the skins off, and use in your favorite recipes. Check out this article on Freezing Raw Tomatoes (with and without their skins).

  • Peel the tomatoes, puree them in a blender, and then strain them through cheesecloth or a coffee filer to drain off the excess tomato water (this can be used in soups). Freeze the pulp in ice cube trays. When frozen, store the frozen cubes in a freezer bag.

Tomato Tips:

  • Add a pinch of sugar to tomatoes when cooking them. It enhances the flavor.

  • To keep baked or stuffed tomatoes from collapsing, bake in greased muffin tins. The tins will give them some support as they cook.

  • Tomato "water" - the clearish liquid that dribbles out of a sliced tomato, can be used as a low-acidity stand-in for lemon juice. This can be used in marinating raw fish.

How To Peel Fresh Tomatoes:

In a 5-quart pan over high heat, bring 3 ˝ quarts water to a boil. Prepare a large bowl of ice water that contains enough ice water to cover the tomatoes you want to peel.

With a paring knife, cut an "X" through the skin on bottom of each tomato.

 

Working in batches of three, plunge (drop) the tomatoes into the boiling water, a few at a time, i 10 to 15 seconds. NOTE: Do not leave tomato in the boiling water for more than 15 seconds as your tomato will become mushy (especially if you are using the tomatoes uncooked in a salad or salsa, you don’t want them in a boiling pot any longer than they have to be, because they’ll start to cook.)

Remove with a slotted spoon

 

With a slotted spoon gently place in a bowl or sink filled with ice water to cool them down. Once the tomatoes are cool, immediately take them out of the water to drain. Leaving the tomatoes in water may cause them to become waterlogged.

When tomatoes have cooled, remove from the ice bath and gently pull away the skins, beginning at the points created by the X. The skin will easily slip off each tomato.

You may use a small paring knife or your fingers.

History of Tomatoes

Contrary to popular belief, tomatoes have been grown as a food since the 16th century, though they have in various times and places been regarded as both poisonous and decorative plants.

The Italian name for the tomato is pomodoro, meaning "apple of love" or "golden apple," because the first to reach Europe were yellow varieties.

Tomatoes were not cultivated in North America until the 1700s, and then only in home gardens. In colonial America (1620-1763), tomatoes were thought to be poisonous and were grown as an ornamental plant called the "love apple." The odor of the leaves made people think it was poisonous.  Thomas Jefferson was raising tomatoes by 1782. Most people of that century paid little attention to tomatoes. Only in the next century did they make their way into American cookbooks, always with instructions that they be cooked for at least three hours or else they "will not lose their raw taste."

1809 - According to the article from The Thomas Jefferson Society called Thomas Jefferson's Favorite Vegetables by Peter J. Hatch regarding Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd President of the United States:

Jefferson was a pioneer grower of "tomatas." Beginning in 1809, he planted this grudgingly accepted vegetable yearly, usually in square X near the midpoint of the garden. Jefferson's daughter, Martha, and daughters, Virginia and Septimia, left numerous recipes that involved tomatoes, including gumbo soups, cayenne-spiced tomato soup, green tomato pickles, tomato preserves, and tomato omelettes. Tomatoes were purchased in 1806 for Presidential dinners.


Fact, Legend or ???

Historians can't agree if the following story is fact, legend, or even a publicity stunt. The source of this story supposedly comes from an old farm journal. How much of this tale is true? Well, as with most legends, probably not much.

While there appears to be little substance to the legend, it is true that the tomato agriculture and related industry developed into the major economy in this area after the American Civil War (1861-1865) and were regarded as a kitchen vegetable and began to steadily grow in popularity. The first Fanny Farmer cookbook, which appeared in the late 1890s, included recipes for tomato soups, salads and sauces without cautions or reservations.

The CBS television series You Are There even dramatized the story on January 30, 1949 in the story called "Colonel Johnson Eats The Love Apple," creating the peculiar situation of our being there while Johnson wasn't.

1820 or 1830? - In September of either 1820 or 1830 (the year varies with different accounts), legend has it that Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson (1771-1850) purportedly introduced the tomato to Salem County, New Jersey. Despite warnings that the tomato's poison would turn his blood to acid, he told the cheering spectators that he planned to eat the entire basket and survive. The story goes that thousands of eager spectators turned out to watch Johnson die after eating the poisonous fruits, and were shocked when he lived. Supposedly Colonel Johnson recited this speech:

The time will come when this luscious, scarlet apple...will form the foundation of a great garden industry, and will be ... eaten, and enjoyed as an edible food...and to help speed that enlightened day, to prove that it will not strike you dead - I am going to eat one right now!

Colonel Johnson's physician, Dr. James Van Meter, supposedly warned that:

The foolish colonel will foam and froth at the mouth and double over with appendicitis. All that oxalic acid, in one dose, and you're dead. If the Wolf Peach [tomato] is too ripe and warmed by the sun, he'll be exposing himself to brain fever. Should he, by some unlikely chance, survive, I must warn him that the skin...will stick to his stomach and cause cancer.

False Memories: The Invention of Culinary Fakelore and Food Fallacies, Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2000, by Andrew F. Smith:

Robert Gibbon Johnson was a prominent Salemite and much was written about him. Unfortunately, I found no evidence connecting him to the tomato. The first version of the story appeared in print 86 years after the purported event. All it said was the Johnson ate a tomato in 1820. Subsequent authors embellished the story adding extraneous information and the purported event was dramatized on national radio in 1949. Subsequently versions have appeared in numerous professional and scholarly journals, newspapers, and popular magazines.