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Fricasseed Tomatoes
Select firm, not over-ripe tomatoes. Cut in halves crosswise. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and a grating of onion; dredge with flour and sauté in melted butter; brown first on cut side, then turn and finish cooking on the other. When soft, but not broken, pour over thin cream to almost cover. Let simmer until cream is slightly thickened. Remove to hot serving dish and pour cream around.
A straightforward skillet dish that depends almost entirely on the firmness of the tomatoes and on keeping the cream from breaking.
- The hingeCook the tomatoes until yielding but still holding their shape, then add the cream. If the halves have collapsed before the cream goes in, you end up with sauce rather than fricassee.
- Choose the tomatoThe recipe specifies firm, not over-ripe fruit, and the dish depends on it. Denser slicing tomatoes hold their shape best; very ripe or soft-fleshed tomatoes are likely to break down in the pan.
- "Thin cream"Older recipes distinguish thin cream from heavy or double cream, though fat content was not standardised at the time; modern light cream is the nearest equivalent. Heavy cream will thicken faster and taste richer than intended.
- CurdlingTomato acid and dairy can split over brisk heat. Keep the pan at a bare simmer rather than a boil once the cream goes in.
- "Dredge with flour"A light dusting is enough. The flour both browns and thickens the cream at the end, so a heavy coat gives a pasty sauce.
- Grating of onionOnion grated on the fine side of a box grater, so it dissolves into the juices. Chopped onion will not soften in the short cooking time.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield. As a vegetable side, two tomatoes (four halves) per person is a reasonable allowance. Cook in a single uncrowded layer, in batches if needed, since a crowded pan steams instead of browning.
Fricassee in nineteenth-century American usage covered dishes cut into pieces, sautéed or stewed, and finished in a cream or white sauce, most often chicken; applying the word to tomatoes signalled the method rather than any connection to poultry. Cream sauces on vegetables were common in American cooking of the period.