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Tomato Figs
Scald and skin pear-shaped (or any small-sized) tomatoes, and to eight pounds of them add three pounds brown sugar; cook without water until the sugar penetrates and they have a clear appearance, take out, spread on dishes, and dry in the sun, sprinkling on a little syrup while drying; pack in jars or boxes, in layers with powdered sugar between. Thus put up they will keep for any length of time, and are nearly equal to figs. Peaches may be preserved in the same way. Mrs. John Samuels, Covington, Ky.
One pint sugar to a pint of stemmed ripe currants; put them together in a porcelain kettle, a layer of currants at the bottom; when the sugar is dissolved, let them boil one or two minutes, skim from the syrup, and spread on plates to dry in a partly cooled oven. Boil the syrup until thickened, pour it over the currants, and dry it with them. Pack in jars and cover closely. Blackberries may be dried in the same manner. An economical way of making jelly is'to boil liquid, skimming well, after currants are taken out, until it becomes jelly, and then put away in jelly glasses. - Mrs. H. A., Va.
A candied preserve rather than a jam: the tomatoes are cooked in their own juice with sugar until translucent, then dried until leathery. Two recipes run together here, and the second (dried currants) is a separate method from the same section.
- The hinge: no waterThe instruction "cook without water" is the whole technique. The tomatoes must give up their own juice slowly so the sugar can replace it; adding liquid dilutes the syrup and you end up with stewed tomatoes instead of candied fruit. Keep the heat low and stir often once the syrup thickens.
- Which tomatoes"Pear-shaped" means the small yellow or red pear tomatoes still sold at markets; any dense, low-juice small tomato works, and modern plum or grape tomatoes are the practical substitute. Large slicing tomatoes are too watery for this.
- Sugar ratioEight pounds of tomatoes to three pounds of brown sugar is about 8:3 by weight, roughly two and two-thirds pounds of fruit to one of sugar, or about 6 1/2 cups of packed brown sugar. That is a preserving ratio, not a dessert one; do not reduce it, since the sugar is what keeps the finished pieces from spoiling.
- Drying without sunSun-drying on dishes takes several dry, hot days and needs cover from insects. A dehydrator at 135F or an oven at its lowest setting with the door propped does the same job in 8 to 12 hours; the pieces should be pliable and tacky, not brittle, and not at all wet in the centre.
- Sprinkling on syrupThe reserved cooking syrup brushed over the fruit partway through drying glazes the surface and keeps the edges from hardening before the middles are done. Save a cup of it for this.
- Storage, honestly"They will keep for any length of time" assumes a cool, dry cellar and fruit dried harder than most people will dry it. Pack in layers with powdered sugar as directed, but keep the jars in the refrigerator and check for mould; there is no measured acidity or water activity here to rely on.
- The currant recipe's oven"A partly cooled oven" means a wood range falling in heat after baking. The book gives no temperature, so any figure is only a guess; the nearest modern equivalent is a very low oven (around 170F) or a dehydrator.
- Porcelain kettleEnamelled cast iron or stainless steel. The point was to avoid bare iron, which discolours acid fruit; unlined copper and chipped enamel are still worth avoiding for prolonged contact with acid fruit.
Tomato figs were a minor sensation in nineteenth-century American preserving books, and recipes for them circulate from the 1830s onward in farm papers and household manuals, usually with the same claim made here: that candied and dried, the tomato is "nearly equal to figs." Real figs were an imported luxury in most of the country, while tomatoes grew in quantity and rotted fast, so a method that turned a glut into something sweet, shelf-stable and vaguely exotic had obvious appeal. The Dixie Cook Book, compiled in the 1880s, prints this one over the name of a Kentucky housewife, in the manner of the contributed-recipe collections of the period. The pairing with dried currants in the same column also belongs to the older tradition of "conserves" and sugared dried fruit that preceded reliable home canning and the sealed glass jar.