Tomato Envy - Recap

Mr. McGregor tends his tomatoes, talking softly to them and hoping this year he’ll win a prize, when a birdcall breaks into his reverie. Behind a tree we see a large metal horn. McGregor believes this might be the call of the “soft-bellied tomato pecker.” But they live only in the Andes. The call comes again and McGregor goes in search of his bird call CD...

And that gives Alton an opportunity to sneak into the garden and snatch tomatoes. While he does this he shares a few facts: Americans eat an average of seventeen pounds of tomatoes per year. And, the tomato is botanically a fruit, not a vegetable. Specifically, a berry, and like other berries it is wonderful in season and mediocre out of season. It doesn’t travel well but it’s packed with nutrition: antioxidants, lycopene, and vitamins A and C. It plays well with other ingredients and it’s just plain... Good Eats! Alton scurries away as McGregor returns with a shotgun and a mad on for the “soft bellied freak.”

Tomatoes come in thousands of varieties, including heirlooms like zebra tomatoes and a weirdly knobby one Alton can’t classify. All of them fall into a half dozen types: globa, plum, cherry, pear, grape and tiny currant tomatoes. Alton continues, explaining that beefsteak refers to any extra large red globe tomato, while a green tomato is properly any red globe tomato that has attained full size but not turned red.

Are garden tomatoes better than store-bought tomatoes? Alton enlists three “federal agents” in black to answer the question. They reveal that tomatoes come in six official colors: green, breaker (some red), turning (10% to 30% tan, pink or red), pink (30% to 60% pink or red), light red (60% to 90% pink or red), and finally, red (minimum 90% red). The agents explain that most commercial tomatoes are picked at the breaker stage, then sorted, sized, packed and placed in a sealed room where they are exposed to a ripening agent.

Ethylene gas is a hydrocarbon found as a growth hormone in many plants. Tomatoes exposed to this gas turn red. But do they really ripen? To find out, Alton puts a breaker tomato in a bag with one banana. Bananas give off a lot of ethylene. Later in the week Alton prepares wedges of vine ripened and “ethylene ripened” tomatoes and gives them to the “federal agents” to compare. There’s no doubt: the vine ripened tomatoes taste best. Ethylene reddens the berry but does not hasten cellular maturation. Be careful, one agent warns: there is no Federal standard governing use of the term “vine ripened.” Most of these are picked while still breakers and ripen during transport, not on the living plant.

Tomatoes must be shipped green because ripe tomatoes are too fragile for transport. Like other seed bearing structures, the purpose of the tomato is to rot and spread the seeds, not to remain intact. Alton obtains tomatoes by shopping seasonally and locally. Properly ripe fruit should yield slightly to pressure and should seen heavy for its size. Avoid obvious deep cracks but don’t worry about appearance otherwise – some of the best tasting tomatoes are some of the ugliest.

At home, don’t keep tomatoes in the sun and never refrigerate them. Refrigeration permanently deactivates an important flavor compound called Z-3-dexenal.

Alton calls tomato the only stuffable berry. Most cooks pass on stuffed tomatoes because the result ends up like what Alton pulls from his oven, collapsed and unappealing. Alton aims to change this. The “stuffing is evil” sign appears but Alton dismisses that: it applies to turkey, not vegetables.

Alton starts with globe tomatoes. First he cuts the tops off and... his razor sharp knife is foiled by the tomato’s thin, rubbery skin! It’s off to meet “W” for more cutting solution. Since the tomato skin is like a rubbery wetsuit, Alton suspects “teeth” are the best choice (driving the points home with a shark jaw).

At the cutlery store, Alton asks W for a serrated knife. She asks him whether he wants forged or stamped. Alton races back home to explain: forged knives are formed by a process of hammering from a block of metal. Such knives have a wide “bolster” at the handle end of the blade. Stamped knives are cut from a piece of sheet metal, nowadays usually by laser (but at one time by a stamping machine with a blade). Stamped blades work well in applications like carving, where little contact with a cutting board is needed.

Back at the shop Alton chooses a stamped bread knife from among the selections. He disdains the smaller tomato knife, fearing that it will lead to bruised knuckles. He rejects an offset bread knife fearing that its angle will promote turning of the blade and other problems. W offers him a bandage which he refuses.

Cutting the tops from his globe tomatoes, Alton reveals inner chambers containing seeds and acidic gel. fingers or a grapefruit spoon work well to extract these. Once that’s done Alton liberally salts the tomatoes and inverts them to drain; the salt will draw liquid from the rind, firming it. While that’s going on he rehydrates a mixture of dried mushrooms in white wine and hot water, and squirts a little olive oil into a skillet. Garlic, shallots, and diced onion go into the skillet after the oil.

Alton squeezes the rehydrated mushrooms and saves the liquid. Then he chops the mushrooms and adds them to the onions in the skillet. The skillet contents cook for five minutes over medium before Alton adds some of the mushroom liquid and simmers for five more minutes. Pepper and a chopped tomato go in, followed by some panko bread crumbs. Alton takes a measuring cup full of this mixture and inverts a hollowed tomato over it, then turns both over so the mixture falls right into the tomato. He tops that will a little goat cheese mixed with parsley and broils it for five to seven minutes, leaving the oven door cracked open so the broiler never shuts off.

Just as Alton sits down to eat someone knocks on his door. It’s McGregor with some plum tomatoes – but not as many as usual, since a “soft bellied tomato pecker” has been making off with some of his fruit.

Alton prefers plum (or Roma) tomatoes for cooking because they have a lot of meat and less gel. The ones McGregor has kindly provided will be enough for a fresh tomato sauce. Alton splits and seeds twenty of them and puts them in glass baking pans cut side up (acid in the fruit might discolor metal baking pans). He spritzes the tomatoes with some oil and then dusts them with oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, minced garlic and a cup of onion. Alton cautions cooks that this order is important! The baking pans go into a 325º oven where the dry heat will concentrate the flavors for two hours.

Two hours later Alton talks on the phone with McGregor, agreeing about the threat of the soft-bellied tomato pecker, when the oven interrupts him and he hangs up. The next step is caramelization. For that Alton raises the temperature to 400º and cooks the tomatoes for another half hour.

A half hour later Alton’s telling McGregor he can’t install an infrared sensor on Alton’s fence when the oven interrupts. Alton removes the cooked fruit and feeds it into a food mill. This crank operated grater separates tomatoes from their skin and pulverizes the meat. Those not bothered by the skin could also use a food processor.

The sauce could be eaten as is. Alton prefers an extra step that may not be to everyone’s taste. He adds a cup of white wine and brings the mixture to a boil, then lets it simmer for five minutes. The alcohol dissolves some alcohol soluable flavorants so they can reach the taste buds. During the simmer, most of the alcohol is driven off but some always remains, so those with any aversion to alcohol may wish to skip this step.

Next up is that late summer classic, the TBL sandwich. Sure, some folks call it the BLT, but Alton puts the “T” first because the tomato is the key flavor. Alton prefers a sweet tomato for this, so he grabs a “jewel box” of very small sweet fruit. He loads bread with mayo, lettuce, bacon and these tomatoes, lifts it to his mouth to take a bite and... ingredients shoot everywhere. So he devises a better delivery for the flavor combination.

It starts with cubed bread left out overnight. Next day Alton cooks bacon and cuts it into one inch lengths, then adds the drippings to the bread cubes. He sears some grape tomatoes in the bacon fat and halves some pear tomatoes. Seared tomatoes and uncooked pear tomatoes go into a bowl with romaine leaves, extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Then Alton tosses that with the bread until the bread soaks up the tomato liquid. Those seeking even more flavor can prepare a chiffonade of mint or basil or both and add this. A chiffonade is made by rolling leaves together and cutting them thinly, producing very long thin strips. It requires a very sharp knife.

Later Alton is eating salad with McGregor, who promises a dire fate to whoever ‘napped his ‘maters. Alton offers him a stuffed tomato and when he examines it, he realizes just who the ‘mater ‘napper is! Alton signs off before fleeing towards home.

Share this article with your friends