SC - Tomatoes

[Trierarch at aol.com]

In a message dated 21-Nov-00 9:09:37 PM Pacific Standard Time, ddfr at best.com 
writes:

<< 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. >>

The common tomato is Native to Central America and Mexico.  It was introduced 
to native Americans who cultivated the fruit in the 18th Century.  The unripe 
fruit as well as the leaves and the stems of the plant contain a toxic 
alkaloid and are indeed poisonous.  Nevertheless, a variety of the tomato did 
find its way into Italian cooking by the 16th Century: the Italians named it 
'Pomodoro' meaning Golden Apple.  The actually name 'tomato' is derived from 
'tomalt' or 'Nahuatl' in the language of the Aztecs.

Fortin, Francois/Macmillan, Encylcopedie Visuelle des Aliments, 
Quebec/Amerique International, pg. 66-67, 1996.

Donegal Arias Massalla, Califia