The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture, and Cookery

Andrew F. Smith

University of Illinois Press, 2001 - Cookery (Tomatoes). - 224 pages

From the Americas to Australasia, from northern Europe to southern Africa, the tomato tickles the world's taste buds. Americans along devour more than twelve million tons annually of this peculiar fruit, variously considered poisonous, curative, and aphrodisiacal.

In this first concerted study of the tomato in America, Andrew F. Smith separates myth from historical fact, beginning with the Salem, New Jersey, man who, in 1820, allegedly attracted spectators from hundreds of miles to watch him eat a tomato on the courthouse steps (the legend says they expected to see him die a painful death). Later, hucksters such as Dr. John Cook Bennett and the Amazing Archibald Miles peddled the tomato's purported medicinal benefits. The competition was so fierce that the Tomato Pill War broke out in 1838.

The Tomato in America traces the early cultivation of the tomato, its infiltration of American cooking practices, the early manufacture of preserved tomatoes and ketchup (soon hailed as "the national condiment of the United States"), and the "great tomato mania" of the 1820s and 1830s. The book also includes tomato recipes from the pre-Civil War period, covering everything from sauces, soups, and main dishes to desserts and sweets.

Now available for the first time in paperback, The Tomato in America provides a piquant and entertaining look at a versatile and storied figure in culinary history.

Contents

• Introducing the Introduction Story: xiv
• The Roots of the American Tomato: 3
• The Arrival of the Tomato in America: 15
• Early Tomato Culture and Cultivation: 42
• Early American Tomato Cookery: 62
• Tomato Medicine: 92
• The Great Tomato Mania: 122
• From the Civil War to the Space Age: 139
• HISTORICAL RECIPES: 149
• SALAD SOUP GAZPACHO AND GUMBO: 153
• MAIN COURSES BAKED SCOLLOPED FRIED AND STEWED TOMATOES: 157
• SAUCES KETCHUPS AND OTHER CONDIMENTS: 165
• PRESERVING AND CANNING TOMATOES: 171
• DESSERTS AND SWEETS: 176
• MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES: 179
• BIBLIOGRAPHY AND OTHER SOURCES: 185
• GENERAL REFERENCE WORKS: 187
• CULINARY HISTORY: 188
• REPRINTED COOKERY BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS: 189
• WORKS ON TOMATO HISTORY: 191
• TOMATO COOKBOOKS AND PAMPHLETS: 192
• TOMATO CULTURE: 193
• HEIRLOOM SEED SOURCES TOMATO ORGANIZATIONS AND OTHER RESOURCES: 195
• Index of Names: 197
• General Index: 203

About the author

Andrew F. Smith is a freelance writer who teaches culinary history and professional food writing at the New School in Manhattan. He is the author of many books, including Pure Ketchup, Popped Culture, and The Saintly Scoundrel: The Life and Times of Dr. John Cook Bennett.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture, and Cookery
• Author: Andrew F. Smith
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2001
• ISBN: 0252070097, 9780252070099
• Length: 224 pages