SC - Tomatoes

Tue Nov 21 20:26:05 PST 2000

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At 11:16 AM -0500 11/21/00, Philippa Alderton wrote:
>  >From my trivia List.....

>     Uncertainty surrounding the toxicity of the tomato took longer to
>settle. The plant itself belongs to the family of poisonous plants that
>includes belladonna, also known as deadly nightshade, and black henbane.
>Though the fruit is safe to eat, the leaves and stems of the tomato plant
>are in fact poisonous, and cattle that graze on tomato plants have been
>known to die.

Eggplant is a member of the same family, and had been eaten for a 
very long time. Do we have any early--16th or 17th c.--references 
implying that this was a source of concern at the time? Linnaeus 
hadn't been born at that point, so the modern classification into 
families didn't exist; I don't know to what extent there were earlier 
versions that would have linked tomatoes to belladonna.

>
>     It was thought that lengthy cooking of tomatoes took away or neutralized
>their supposedly venomous content, so for many years tomatoes were consumed
>as a sauce. However, raw tomato was approached with caution until the 20th
>century. The first record of a human eating a raw tomato in the US dates to
>1840, when Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson stood on the courthouse steps in
>Salem, New Jersey and publicly devoured one. He lived to tell the story, but
>did little to change public opinion. Food historian Waverly Root reports
>that no Frenchman dared to bite into a raw tomato until 1912.

Do we have any reason to believe that these anecdotes are true? In 
particular, the "eating X in public to prove it wasn't poisonous" 
story seems to show up pretty often, with a variety of actors and X's.

The following information is, I think, from an article by Jan Longone:

As late as 1753, an English writer describes tomatoes as "a 
fruit...eaten either stewed or raw by the Spaniards and Italians and 
by the Jew families in England." But another writer, at about the 
same time, asserts that the tomato is "now much used in England," 
especially for soups and sauces.

That makes your story sound a bit implausible.

Longone, Jan, From the Kitchen, The American Magazine and Historical 
Chronicle Vol. 3 No. 2 1987-88.
- -- 
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
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<div>At 11:16 AM -0500 11/21/00, Philippa Alderton wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>>From my trivia List.....</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>    Uncertainty
surrounding the toxicity of the tomato took longer to<br>
settle. The plant itself belongs to the family of poisonous plants
that<br>
includes belladonna, also known as deadly nightshade, and black
henbane.<br>
Though the fruit is safe to eat, the leaves and stems of the tomato
plant<br>
are in fact poisonous, and cattle that graze on tomato plants have
been<br>
known to die.</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>Eggplant is a member of the same family, and had been eaten for
a very long time. Do we have any early--16th or 17th c.--references
implying that this was a source of concern at the time? Linnaeus
hadn't been born at that point, so the modern classification into
families didn't exist; I don't know to what extent there were earlier
versions that would have linked tomatoes to belladonna.</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
    It was thought that lengthy cooking of tomatoes
took away or neutralized<br>
their supposedly venomous content, so for many years tomatoes were
consumed<br>
as a sauce. However, raw tomato was approached with caution until the
20th<br>
century. The first record of a human eating a raw tomato in the US
dates to<br>
1840, when Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson stood on the courthouse
steps in<br>
Salem, New Jersey and publicly devoured one. He lived to tell the
story, but<br>
did little to change public opinion. Food historian Waverly Root
reports</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>that no Frenchman dared to bite into a
raw tomato until 1912.</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Do we have any reason to believe that these anecdotes are true?
In particular, the "eating X in public to prove it wasn't
poisonous" story seems to show up pretty often, with a variety
of actors and X's.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The following information is, I think, from an article by Jan
Longone:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Times" size="-1" color="#000000">As late as 1753, an
English writer describes tomatoes as "a fruit...eaten either
stewed or raw by the Spaniards and Italians and by the Jew families
in England." But another writer, at about the same time, asserts
that the tomato is "now much used in England," especially
for soups and sauces.</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>That makes your story sound a bit implausible.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Times" size="-1" color="#000000">Longone, Jan,<i>
 From the Kitchen</i>, The American Magazine and Historical Chronicle
Vol. 3 No. 2 1987-88.</font></div>

<div>-- <br>
David/Cariadoc<br>
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/</div>
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