Culinary WI: John Gerard doesn't discourage people from growing tomatoes for food

In the late 16th century, English barber-surgeon John Gerard wrote a non-fiction book titled Herbal. In it, he also described tomatoes, still a novel plant in Europe back then. Despite having plagiarised a lot of his notes from continental literature, his book became succesful and immensely influential, even in translations.

But there is a problem: Outside of Spanish cuisine, tomatoes weren't regarded as worthy of being eaten in most of Europe. And Gerard believed tomatoes were poisonous and completely inedible. Due to the success of his book, this idea stayed cemented in European thought for most of the following century, with tomatoes becoming commonly eaten in Italy (and then elsewhere) at the turn of the 17th and 18th century.

So... What would happen if Gerard changed his mind or didn't write his book ? And if tomato cultivars better suited for agriculture spread from Spain to the rest of Europe a bit earlier ?

I doubt it would havew a great impact. Early tomatoes seem to have had a strong bitter note that many people disliked, and if we can trust accounts from Germany, the plants that therived in more temperate latitudes did not lose that until the nieteenth century. Even in a country where the idea that tomatoes were poisonous never gained much traction, they were not popular food as a result.

I could see then used more widely as salad herbs. Strong, bitter or acerbic flavours were certainly relished in that role (hops were eaten in salad). The widespread modern culinary use, I think, is mostly owed to the emergence of sweeter varietals and the inventiveness of Mediterranean cuisine.

carlton_bach said:

I doubt it would havew a great impact. Early tomatoes seem to have had a strong bitter note that many people disliked, and if we can trust accounts from Germany, the plants that therived in more temperate latitudes did not lose that until the nieteenth century. Even in a country where the idea that tomatoes were poisonous never gained much traction, they were not popular food as a result.

I could see then used more widely as salad herbs. Strong, bitter or acerbic flavours were certainly relished in that role (hops were eaten in salad). The widespread modern culinary use, I think, is mostly owed to the emergence of sweeter varietals and the inventiveness of Mediterranean cuisine.

Click to expand...

Hmm, perhaps added to English chutneys (well, savoury jams at this point preIndia contact ) and mustards?

The Professor said:

Hmm, perhaps added to English chutneys (well, savoury jams at this point preIndia contact ) and mustards?

Click to expand...

Good point, they might become popular as a substitute for tropical fruit in early catsups and chetneys. I'm not so convinced with mustards, the favouritse combinations there seem to have been sweet or tart. And the problem with sauces is that the fashion was going towards stock-based sauces, away from vegetable- or fruit-based ones that medieval cuisine favoured.

So, no go then, prior to the 19th century ? How about them becoming a greater success at least in the Mediterranean (outside of the Iberian peninsula) ?

Petike said:

So, no go then, prior to the 19th century ? How about them becoming a greater success at least in the Mediterranean (outside of the Iberian peninsula) ?

Click to expand...

They were. Neapolitan cuisine adopted them quite enthusiastically. (Of course, there was strong Spanish influence in Naples, but the degree to which tomatoes became part of the culinary universe of Naples was unusual even by Spanish lights). By the late eighteenth century, they had become fashionable in Paris.

The idea that tomatoes were poisonous seems to be an artifact of English-speaking culture, and even there, hardly as widespread as earlier generations of food historians thought. I haven't looked systematically, but the opnions I've found German writers voicing in the eighteenth century rather boil down to "Why on earth anyone would want to eat this is beyond me."

Do you think the earlier cultivars of the plant were to blame ?

Petike said:

Do you think the earlier cultivars of the plant were to blame ?

Click to expand...

Probably, but not entirely. Tomatoes aren't good per se. We tend to like them, but that's not a foregone conclusion. They don't push evolutionary buttons the way salt, sugar, fat and meat do. A given culinary culture could simply not have a place for them.