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TOMATOES, BAKED (another way)
Take five or six large ripe tomatoes, plunge them for one minute into boiling water, take them out, remove the thin skin, divide them in halves, and squeeze out the seeds. Mix a salt-spoonful of salt, half a salt-spoonful of white pepper, a pinch of cayenne, and a little grated nutmeg, into two ounces of fresh butter. Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer on a baking-dish, the cut side uppermost; put an equal portion of the seasoned butter on each, and bake in a brisk oven. When done enough pour the juice of a lemon over them, lay them upon hot buttered toast, and pour over them the gravy which was in the dish with them. Serve very hot. Time to bake, about twenty minutes. Probable cost, tomatoes, 2d. to 6d. per pound. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A straightforward Victorian savoury that stands or falls on the oven being genuinely hot: the tomatoes must roast and concentrate rather than stew in their own liquid.
- "Brisk oven"Read this as a hot oven, roughly 400-425F (200-220C). At a lower heat the halves slump and weep, and you get watery toast rather than the promised gravy.
- Salt-spoonfulA salt-spoon was the small spoon sold with a Victorian salt cellar, roughly a quarter teaspoon. So about 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp white pepper for five or six tomatoes.
- Two ounces of butterFour tablespoons, or half a standard US stick. Have it soft enough to mash the seasonings through evenly, then divide it between the halves rather than dotting it at random.
- SkinningOne minute in boiling water works on ripe summer tomatoes; underripe ones will not release. A small cross cut at the base and a plunge into cold water afterwards makes the skins slip off cleanly.
- Squeezing out the seedsThis is the step that decides the dish. The seed jelly is the wettest part of the tomato, and leaving it in makes a soggy result far likelier. Scoop with a small spoon or fingertip and let the halves drain cut-side down for a few minutes.
- Twenty minutesAccurate for large beefsteak-type halves at that heat. Smaller modern varieties collapse in twelve to fifteen; take them out while they still hold their shape, since they must survive the trip to the toast.
- Order of workToast the bread and butter it at the last moment. Bread toasted in advance and held goes leathery under hot tomato juice, and the whole point is the juice soaking in.
- YieldFour or five as a savoury or light supper course, as the book says; two as a main with something alongside. Use one thick slice of toast per portion.
Baked tomatoes on toast belongs to the Victorian and Edwardian savoury course, the small hot dish served after the sweet and before dessert, largely a British habit and one of the reasons cookery dictionaries of this period carry so many recipes for things on buttered toast. Cassell's was published for households buying tomatoes by the pound, and the plain price note here, twopence to sixpence a pound, records a fruit that was still seasonal rather than year-round. The seasoning is characteristic of the era's savouries, where white pepper, cayenne and grated nutmeg were often used to lift something mild, and the finishing squeeze of lemon does the work that vinegar or a splash of Worcestershire would do in later versions.