Tomato Equivalents
Fresh Tomatoes:
2 1/2 pounds fresh tomatoes = 3 cups
chopped and drained fresh tomatoes = 2 1/2 cups seeded, chopped
cooked tomatoes.
25 to 30 cherry tomatoes
= 2 cups chopped tomatoes.
Canned Tomatoes:
1 (16-ounce) can = 2 cups
undrained tomatoes = 1 cup drained tomatoes.
1 (28-ounce) can = 3 cups undrained = 2 to 2 1/2 cups drained tomatoes.
1 (35-ounce) can = 4 cups undrained = 2 1/2 to
3 cups drained tomatoes.
1 (6-ounce) can tomato
paste = 1/4 cup.
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.
-
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:
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.
|
|