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Broiled Tomatoes
Choose firm, round tomatoes, cut them into thick slices, dust each slice with salt and pepper, place in a greased broiler and broil over a moderate fire. Pour on melted butter when sending to the table, or add a cream sauce.
A four-line recipe that assumes a coal or gas grate and a hinged wire broiler. The technique translates directly to a modern broiler or a ridged grill pan, provided the slices are thick enough to survive being turned.
- The broiler meantA "greased broiler" here is a hinged double-wire basket held over the fire, not the drawer under your oven. A grill pan or a rack set 4 to 5 inches under an overhead broiler element both work; oil the metal well, because tomato flesh grips wire.
- A moderate fireFor an overhead broiler that means medium rather than full blast, roughly 3 to 4 minutes a side. Too fierce a heat blisters the cut face before the interior warms, and the slice collapses when you move it.
- Slice thickness is the hinge"Thick slices" means at least half an inch, and closer to three-quarters. Thin rounds turn to pulp and drop through the wires; nothing else in the recipe compensates for cutting them too fine.
- Choice of tomatoFirm and round rules out very ripe or watery salad tomatoes. Slightly underripe fruit holds its shape best. Cut across the equator, not through the stem end.
- Salt in advanceThe recipe salts the slices as they go in, but letting them stand a few minutes on paper first draws out surface water; blot before the slices meet the hot metal.
- The cream sauceMost likely a plain white sauce of the usual period proportions: roughly equal butter and flour, about 2 tablespoons of each to a cup of milk or thin cream, seasoned. Something like a cup of sauce will cover tomatoes for four.
- YieldReckon one to two medium tomatoes per person as a side dish. Broil them last and serve at once, as they weep as they cool.
Broiled tomatoes were a common treatment in American cookbooks of the 1880s through the 1910s, appearing beside stewed, scalloped and stuffed versions in many general household manuals. It reflects a kitchen built around a range with a live grate rather than a thermostat: the hinged wire broiler was a basic tool, used for chops, fish and toast, and vegetables could be pushed into the same rotation. The Butterick Publishing Company issued this book as part of a broad line of domestic guides that grew out of its dress-pattern business, aimed at the middle-class housekeeper who wanted a plain, reliable method rather than a flourish. Older English-speaking suspicion of the tomato as a nightshade had faded well before this date, and by the time of this recipe tomatoes were among the most commonly eaten vegetables in the United States, fresh in summer and canned the rest of the year.