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Broiled Tomatoes
6 tomatoes
Melted butter
Salt and pepper
Choose firm, round tomatoes, cut them into slices, three-quarters inch thick, dust each slice with salt and pepper, place in a greased broiler and broil over a moderate fire until tender. Turn once carefully. Add melted butter when sending to the table.
A four-line recipe that depends almost entirely on the tomatoes themselves. The main translation needed is the equipment: in 1900 a "broiler" was a hinged wire basket held over coals, not a heating element in an oven.
- The broilerA greased hinged wire broiler over a moderate coal fire is closest today to a grill or a ridged cast-iron grill pan over medium heat. Under an oven broiler the slices sit in their own juices and stew rather than sear; if you use one, set the pan close to the element and expect to blot liquid.
- Slice thickness mattersThree-quarters of an inch is deliberate and worth keeping. Thinner slices collapse into pulp before the surface browns, thicker ones stay raw and cold in the middle.
- Moderate fireCoals with a light grey ash and no flame; a medium grill heat. Tomato sugars scorch quickly, so a fierce fire blackens the cut faces while the interior is still firm.
- TimingThe original gives none. Figure three to four minutes a side, and stop while the slices still hold their shape. "Until tender" here means yielding, not slumping.
- SaltingSalting draws moisture to the surface within a few minutes. Season immediately before the slices go on the heat, or pat them dry after salting, so they brown instead of steaming.
- Turning onceThe instruction to turn once carefully is the hinge of the recipe. Each turn risks the slice breaking; use a wide thin spatula, and wait until the underside has set and released before moving it.
- Butter at the tableThe melted butter is added after cooking rather than before. The recipe gives no quantity; a couple of tablespoons for six tomatoes, poured over the hot slices on the serving dish, is a reasonable starting point.
- YieldSix tomatoes give roughly three or four slices apiece, serving four to six as a side dish.
- Choose the fruitFirm, slightly underripe tomatoes hold together on the grate. Very ripe or thin-walled tomatoes are much more likely to break up when turned.
Broiling was one of several common American treatments for tomatoes in the decades before and after 1900, along with frying in crumbs, stewing, scalloping and baking them stuffed, and it appears in vegetable chapters of the period alongside other tomato preparations. The tomato had been a suspect fruit in English-speaking kitchens well into the nineteenth century, often said to be avoided as a relative of nightshade, and by the time Butterick's compiled its household volume that suspicion had been thoroughly replaced by enthusiasm: canneries were shipping tomatoes nationwide and seed catalogues listed dozens of varieties. The recipe also reflects the equipment of the era's kitchen, where a hinged wire broiler over the coals or the open grate of a range firebox was one common way to cook quickly with dry heat, though gas ranges with overhead broilers were already in use.