Tomatoes

Tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables eaten by Americans. While technically a fruit the tomato is usually served and prepared as a vegetable—raw and cooked, in sauces, pastes, soups and plain. Cooking tempers the acid and bitter qualities in tomatoes and brings out their warm, rich, sweetness.

The tomato is the fruit of the plant Lycopersicon lycopersicum and is a member of the Solanaceae, or Nightshade family, which includes eggplant, bell peppers, and white potatoes. The name that this fruit was given in various languages reflects some of the history and mystery surrounding it. Lycopersicon means "wolf peach" in Latin and refers to the former belief that, like a wolf, this fruit was dangerous. The French call it pomme d'amour, meaning "love apple," since they believed it to have aphrodisiacal qualities, while the Italians call it pomodoro or "golden apple," owing to the fact that the first known species with which they were familiar may have been yellow in color.

Regardless of its name, the tomato is a wonderfully popular and versatile food that comes in over a thousand different varieties that vary in shape, size and color. They can be red, yellow, orange, green, purple, or brown in color. There are small cherry tomatoes, bright yellow tomatoes, Italian pear-shaped tomatoes, and the green tomato, famous for its fried preparation in Southern American cuisine. The most widely available varieties are classified in three groups: cherry, plum, and slicing tomatoes.

Health Benefits: For the Most Lycopene, Use the Whole Tomato
The lycopene in tomatoes has garnered much attention during the past decade. This carotenoid found in tomatoes (and everything made from them) has been extensively studied for its antioxidant and cancer-preventing properties. Prevention of heart disease has been shown to be another antioxidant role played by lycopene. While lycopene may play an important role in tomatoes' health benefits, it seems that it is not the only nutritional star integral for giving this food a red-hot reputation for health promotion. Scientists are finding out that it is the array of nutrients included in tomatoes, including, but not limited to lycopene, that confers it with so much health value. All the while, it's still important to understand the many benefits that lycopene provides.

Tomato products, such as tomato paste, have been recommended over whole fresh tomatoes because they concentrate tomatoes and thus deliver more of their protective carotenoids, despite the fact that tomato peels are usually eliminated during processing. A study published in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Nutrition, however, once again confirms that Mother Nature knows best: consuming whole, natural foods—in this case, the whole tomato—is best.

In addition to their center-stage phytonutrient, lycopene, tomatoes are packed with traditional nutrients; they are an excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin A, and a very good source of fiber, which has been shown to lower high cholesterol levels, keep blood sugar levels from getting too high, and help prevent colon cancer. A cup of fresh tomato will provide you with 57.3% of the daily value for vitamin C, plus 22.4% of the DV for vitamin A, and 7.9% of the DV for fiber.

Tomatoes are also a very good source of potassium and a good source of niacin, vitamin B6, and folate and vitamin K. The 17.8% of the daily value for vitamin K that is found in one cup of raw tomato is important for maintaining bone health. A good source of riboflavin, tomatoes are helpful for reducing the frequency of migraine attacks in those who suffer from them. A good intake of chromium, a mineral of which tomatoes are a good source, has been shown to help diabetic patients keep their blood sugar levels under control.

Storage
Store tomatoes at room temperature (above 55 degrees) until they have fully ripened. This will allow them to ripen properly and develop good flavor and aroma. Try to store tomatoes out of direct sunlight, because sunlight will cause them to ripen unevenly. If you must store them for a longer period of time, place them in the refrigerator. Serve them at room temperature. Chopped tomatoes can be frozen for use in sauces or other cooked dishes.

History
0ne of the strangest things about the history of the tomato is the fact that, although it is of American origin, it was unknown as food in this country until long after it was commonly eaten in Europe. Until hardly more than a hundred years ago it was generally thought to be poisonous in the United States. Long before it was considered here as fit to eat, it was grown only as an ornamental garden plant.

The mistaken idea that tomatoes were poisonous probably arose because the plant belongs to the Nightshade family, of which some species are truly poisonous. The strong, unpleasant odor of the leaves and stems also contributed to the idea that the fruits were unfit for food.

Our word "tomato" is but a slight modification of tomati, the word used by the Indians of Mexico, who have grown the plant for food since prehistoric times. Other names reported by early European explorers were tomatl, tumatle, and tomatas, probably variants of Indian words.

In Their Native Andes, Tomatoes Grow Wild. Cultivated tomatoes apparently originated as wild forms in the Peru-Ecuador-Bolivia area of the Andes. Moderate altitudes in that mountainous land abound today in a wide range of forms of tomato, both wild and cultivated. The cultivated tomato is very tender to cold and also rather intolerant of extremely hot or dry weather, a characteristic reflecting the nature of the climate in which it originated. Presumably the cultivated species of tomato was carried from the slopes of the Andes northward into Central America and Mexico in the same way as maize, by a prehistoric migration of Indians. Since few primitive forms of tomato are found in Central America and Mexico compared with the number in South America, this probably occurred in relatively recent times-perhaps in the last two thousand years.

Because of the highly perishable nature of the fruit, it seems likely that the tomato was among the last of the native American species to be adopted as a cultivated food plant by the Indians and that it remained of little importance until after the arrival of the white man. Lack of evidence of its use by North American Indians further suggests its rather late movement from South America.
For more than 200 years after 1554, when the first known record of the tomato was written, it was being gradually carried over the globe. European writers mentioned seeing it in far places, but not in what is now the United States.

Although the use of tomatoes spread throughout Europe and made its way to Italy by the 16th century, it was originally not a very popular food since many people held the belief that it was poisonous. Italians first grew the tomato about 1550 and apparently were the first Europeans to eat it. By the middle of the 18th century the tomato was grown for food extensively in Italy and to some extent in many European countries.

Tomatoes made their way to North America with the colonists who first settled in Virginia, yet did not readily gain popularity until the late 19th century. Since new varieties have been developed and more efficient means of transportation established, tomatoes have become one of the top selling vegetables in this country. Today, the United States, Russia, Italy, Spain, China and Turkey are among the top selling commercial producers of tomatoes.

Not until after the Declaration of Independence do we find any record of the tomato as being grown by white men in this country. Thomas Jefferson, a remarkably progressive Virginia farmer as well as a statesman, grew it in 1781. It was supposedly introduced to Philadelphia by a French refugee from Santo Domingo in 1789 and to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1802 by an Italian painter.
Tomatoes were used as food in New Orleans as early as 1812, doubtless through French influence; but it was another 20 to 25 years before they were grown for food in the northeastern part of the country. Many persons now living recall being told that tomatoes were poisonous.

The various shapes and colors of tomatoes known today in the United States were found in America by the earliest explorers. Plant breeders have improved the size and smoothness of the fruit and the productivity of the plants, but have introduced nothing basically new in form or color.
As a food of worldwide importance, the tomato is about the newest. It has been cultivated and bred so assiduously in Europe that European varieties are now contributing important characters to the improvement of the crop in the United States. Italy has long been famous for its excellent tomato paste, made from small, oblong, rich, red tomatoes; and spaghetti is hardly spaghetti without tomato sauce.

There are at least 10,000 varieties of tomatoes.
The South Arkansas vine ripe pink tomato is Arkansas' official state vegetable.
Tomato juice is the official state beverage of Ohio.
China is the largest producer of tomatoes in the world, producing over 16% of all tomatoes.
The highest concentration of vitamin C in tomatoes is in the jelly-like substance around the seeds.
The first tomato plants were planted in Greece by a Friar Francis in 1818, in the gardens of a Capuchin monastery at the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (built in 335 B.C.) in Athens.

Tomato Quotes

"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins."
Laurie Colwin, Home Cooking

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato."
Lewis Grizzard

“Of the tomato or love apple, I know very little. It is chiefly employed as a sauce or condiment. No one, it is believed, regards it as very nutritious; and it belongs, like the mushroom and the potatoe, to a family of plants, some of the individuals of which are extremely poisonous. Some persons are even injured, more or less, by the acid of the tomato.”
‘The Young House-keeper’ by William Andrus Alcott (1846)

“A number of rare or newly experienced foods have been claimed to be aphrodisiacs. At one time this quality was even ascribed to the tomato. Reflect on that when you are next preparing the family salad.”
Jane Grigson

“High-tech tomatoes. Mysterious milk. Supersquash. Are we supposed to eat this stuff? Or is it going to eat us?”
Annita Manning

“Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.
Alice May Brock (of Alice's Restaurant fame)

“A cooked tomato is like a cooked oyster: ruined.”
Andre Simon (1877-1970)

“A world devoid of tomato soup, tomato sauce, tomato ketchup and tomato paste is hard to visualize. Could the tin and processed food industries have got where they have without the benefit of the tomato compounds which colour, flavour, thicken and conceal so many deficiencies? How did the Italians eat spaghetti before the advent of the tomato? Was there such a thing as tomato-less Neapolitan pizza?”
Elizabeth David (1913-1992)
An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, 1984

“Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes
What would life be like without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and home grown tomatoes.”
John Denver, 'Home Grown Tomatoes'
(from a song written by Guy Clark)

The word ketchup comes from the Chinese word “kôe-chiap” or “ke-tsiap,” meaning “brine of pickled fish or shellfish.” The original Chinese type of ketchup tasted more like soy or Worcestershire sauce, and did, of course, contain fish brine, plus herbs and spices. There were no tomatoes involved. The early recipe “traveled,” as good recipes do, to Malaysia and Indonesia. 17th century English sailors encountered the sauce in their journeys, and took the sauce and recipe concept home to England. (Another theory states that British explorers first discovered the condiment in Southeast Asia.) At any rate, instructions for making ketchups then spread to other parts of the Western world. The sauce was first mentioned in print in the English language in 1690. In 1748 in the Housekeeper's Pocketbook, Mrs. Harrison recommended that the homemaker never be without it.

Nearly everyone likes ketchup, even if what they like to put it on seems odd-Nixon covered his cottage cheese with it, the Japanese eat it on rice, and one ice cream manufacturer allegedly once tried a ketchup ice cream. But how did this condiment, by some estimates owned by 97% of US households, become America's favorite accompaniment to the classic hamburger and fries?
In the 1600s Dutch and British seamen brought back a salty pickled fish sauce called 'ketsiap' from China. In this version, it was more related to soy or oyster sauce than the sweet, vinegary substance we call ketchup today. Variations in both the name and the ingredients quickly developed. British alternatives included mushrooms (the favorite), anchovies, oysters, and walnuts. In 1690 the word 'catchup' appeared in print in reference to this sauce, and in 1711 'ketchup'.

The first ketchup recipe was printed in 1727 in Elizabeth Smith's The Compleat Housewife, and called for anchovies, shallots, vinegar, white wine, sweet spices (cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg), pepper, and lemon peel. Eighty-five years later the first tomato ketchup recipe was published in Nova Scotia by American ex-pat James Mease, which he often refers to as 'love apple' ketchup-he attempts to give it more cachet by stating that this variation is influenced by French cooking, although there is no proof of it.
Recipes continued to appear periodically, featuring mushrooms in Britain and tomatoes in the United States. A New England Farmer offered it for sale in 1830 in bottles, and priced from 33 to 50 cents. In 1837, Americans selling ketchup in Britain were encouraged to rename it 'tomato chutney' in order to draw attention to the differences between their product and the mushroom ketchup popular in Britain. In addition to the difference in ingredients, the British version also differed in texture, being nearly transparent and very thin in consistency.
Ketchup was sold nationwide in the US by 1837 thanks to the hard work of Jonas Yerkes, who sold the product in quart and pint bottles. He used the refuse of tomato canning-skins, cores, green tomatoes, and lots of sugar and vinegar. Lots of other small companies followed suit-by 1900 there were 100 manufacturers of ketchup. The big success came in 1872 when HJ Heinz added ketchup to his line of pickled products and introduced it at the Philadelphia fair. The Heinz formula has not changed since, and has become the standard by which other ketchups are rated.
In 1848 some ketchup manufacturers came under fire for their unsanitary practices-coal tar was frequently used to heighten the red color. Others made the condiment from concentrated tomato pulp in the off-season, which they stored in questionable circumstances. This debate continued until the 1900s, when the Pure Food Act put strict limits on food manufacturers. (Today's FDA has very strict guidelines on what even constitutes ketchup, specifying the spices that must be used, as well as the thickness of the end result.)
So, what's in a name? Variations such as catsup, catchup, katsup, and others abounded alongside 'ketchup'. However, when the Reagan administration briefly decided to count ketchup as a vegetable in 1981, Del Monte Catsup found itself out of the loop due to their spelling-they permanently changed to 'ketchup', but by then public outcry had forced a reversal of administration policy. Ever since, though, you'll be hard-pressed to find a bottle from any manufacturer labeled anything other than 'ketchup'.
Although it frequently graces such foods as fries and greasy burgers, ketchup itself has a moderate health benefit, as it contains lycopene, an antioxidant associated with decreased cancer risk. (Unlikely that it's enough to cancel out the negative effects of the fries, though.)

HEIRLOOM, RED, ROMA, YELLOW ARE SOME OF SCHREIBER & SONS TOMATO VARIETIES AVAILABLE.

This food is low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Potassium and Manganese.