Cookbook:Tomato
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Cookbook | Recipes | Ingredients | Vegetable
The tomato is considered a vegetable in cooking. Tomatoes and are best when vine-ripened until deep red. Most commercially produced tomatoes are picked while still in a green and unyielding state. This is done to reduce damage during transportation and to increase shelf life. Unfortunately, they are often pale and tasteless when sold. Additionally, most commercial breeds are selected for their yield and keeping qualities, instead of for flavour. So even vine-ripened tomatoes can be disappointing.
Tomatoes should be kept at a cool room temperature, never refrigerated. High cooking temperatures quickly destroy fresh tomato flavor, but can be useful to disable enzymes that tend to liquify a tomato that has been injured (sliced, mashed, or shredded, for example).
Tomatoes are rich in vitamins and antioxidants. They contain MSG. The seeds are high in fiber and bitter-tasting tannins. The green parts are mildly poisonous, which is not surprising, as tomatoes are closely related to both nightshade and tobacco.
As its fruit was originally believed to be poisonous when introduced into Europe, the tomato was used solely as an ornamental plant during the 16th and 17th centuries. The first traces of its use as a food there date back to the first half of the 18th century. Only in the second half of the 19th century did widespread cultivation of the tomato as food begin (mainly in southern Italy and in France).
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[edit] Varieties of tomato
[edit] Spherical juice tomatoes, known as rounds
These tomatoes are used for juice production. When sliced into quarters, they go well in salads. When sliced thin, they go well in sandwiches. It is often easy to remove the slimy seedy parts from this type of tomato.
[edit] Pear-shaped or oval tomatoes, known as consistency tomatoes or plum tomatoes
These tomatoes are less juicy and flavorful than others. They are primarily used to make tomato paste.
[edit] Small cherry or grape tomatoes
These tomatoes are usually eaten whole in salads or as a snack. Grape tomatoes have firmer, thicker flesh, and may be cooked on kabobs or grilled.
[edit] Wide steak, beefsteak, or sandwich tomatoes
These tomatoes are commonly 5 inches in diameter. One slice is enough to cover a large sandwich. It is usually very difficult to remove the slimy seedy parts from this type of tomato.
[edit] Tinned or canned tomatoes
Don't despise the tinned product. In the summer, tomato growers produce many more tomatoes than they can possibly sell fresh. Lots of these (usually plum tomatoes) are put into cans. For cooked in the middle of winter, you might get a better tasting tomato from a tin than from a low-cost greenhouse-grown or imported variety.
[edit] Sun-dried tomatoes
Tomatoes can also be preserved by being dried in the sun (this tends to happen more in Italy than in England, for example). They are then either stored dry in packs (they need to be soaked before use) or in olive oil in jars (these can be used straight from the jar). The taste of sun-dried tomatoes is intense and concentrated. You can use them in pizza topping, where they go well with strong flavours like anchovies, capers and olives.
[edit] Peeling tomatoes
It's almost always a good idea to skin tomatoes before using them in cooking. Here's how.
Using a sharp knife, cut a little cross at the base of each tomato. Plunge the tomatoes into boiling water for no more than 30 seconds, then plunge them into ice cold water, to stop any cooking that might have started. You should then be able to pull off the skin from each tomato. Throw the skins away — they aren't much good for preparing any foods, although if you like to eat them, they do contain many nutrients.
[edit] Intense tomato sauce
This way of cooking tomatoes is described by Heston Blumenthal. It recognises that much of what we consider to be tomato flavour comes from the scent of the green stem, or vine. The vine is not edible and its fragrance is destroyed by heat, but this method goes some way to capture it.
Peel the tomatoes as described above. Cut them into small pieces and remove the seeds. Put the cut tomatoes in a sieve above a bowl, and salt liberally. Leave in a cool place for an hour or more. The salt will draw liquid out of the tomatoes, which will collect in the bowl. Use the liquid as a basis for cooking the tomatoes quickly (Blumenthal suggests using a pressure cooker). This avoids adding any water, and so concentrates the flavour. When the tomatoes are cooked to a puree, boil in an uncovered saucepan until the liquid is reduced. Then cool the puree, and put in an airtight container with the vine of a tomato plant. Store for an hour or more, while the tomatoes take on some of the fragrance of the vine. Discard the vine and use the sauce as the basis for a pizza topping or a sauce to accompany fish, meat, or vegetables.
