Parsley
Select ripe tomatoes but do not have them too large; remove stems and cut each in halves crossways; remove cores and pips, and fry lightly in two tablespoonfuls Crisco. Have rounds of buttered toast a little larger than tomatoes. Beat eggs in small saucepan, add cream, pimientos, rest of Crisco, seasonings, and stir over fire until creamy and just setting. Place each half tomato on round of toast, divide egg mixture into tomatoes, garnish with parsley and serve hot.
A Crisco-era supper dish of soft scrambled eggs served in fried tomato cups on toast. The original text assumes an ingredient list that the page does not reproduce, so quantities beyond the shortening are left to the cook.
- Missing quantitiesOnly "two tablespoonfuls Crisco" and a vague "rest of Crisco" are specified. For four tomato halves, figure four to five eggs, two tablespoons cream, and a tablespoon of chopped pimiento; the total shortening the original ingredient list called for is not recoverable from this page.
- CriscoCrisco was new when this book was written and the book exists to sell it. Any neutral fat works; butter gives a better flavour with eggs, and butter and lard were the fats in general use before Crisco appeared in 1911.
- PimientosCanned or jarred sweet red pimiento peppers, drained and chopped fine. Roasted red peppers from a jar are the closest current equivalent.
- The hinge: pull the eggs early"Just setting" means the curds are still loose and glossy and will finish on the hot tomato and toast. Cooked to the point they look done in the pan, they will be dry and weeping by the time the plate reaches the table. Low heat, constant stirring, off the heat while still slightly underdone.
- Frying the tomatoes"Fry lightly" is about two minutes a side over medium heat, cut side down first. The halves need to hold their shape as cups, so stop while they still have structure; salt them after frying rather than before to limit weeping.
- Pips and coresScooping out seeds and the tough core is what makes room for the eggs. A small spoon or a melon baller does it without tearing the walls.
- Assembly and timingToast last and butter it hot, and have the tomatoes ready before the eggs go on the heat. Buttered toast under a wet tomato goes soft within a few minutes, so this is a dish to plate and carry straight out.
- YieldTwo halves per person as a light lunch or supper dish; one half each as part of a larger meal.
This comes from a 1910s Crisco cookbook, one of a genre of manufacturer-sponsored volumes that dressed advertising as household guidance. Crisco, hydrogenated vegetable shortening, was introduced by Procter & Gamble in 1911 and marketed hard to cooks who had until then reached for butter or lard, and books like this one were the vehicle. The dish itself belongs to a long line of Anglo-American egg-and-tomato combinations served on toast, the same family as eggs on toast with tomato sauce and the various "stuffed tomato" savouries popular in the period, when a fried or baked tomato half was a standard vessel for anything creamy. Pimientos, available in tins by this period, were the era's easy way to put a spot of red and a little sweetness into a pale dish.