No. 2833

Tomatoes a la Boquillon

Tomates a la Boquillon

Have very plump tomatoes, plunge them into boiling water, peel off the skins and cut them into four pieces; place these in a saucepan with salt, pepper, fresh butter and sugar, cover and let cook on a brisk fire for a few moments; they are then ready to serve.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A three-minute stewed tomato that lives or dies on the quality of the fruit and on restraint at the stove. Ranhofer gives no quantities, so treat it as a method rather than a formula.

The hinge: cook briefly"A few moments" is best read as two to four minutes over high heat, just until the wedges soften at the edges and release some juice. Longer and they collapse into sauce, which is a different dish entirely.
PeelingScore an X in the base, drop into boiling water for 15-30 seconds, then into ice water. The skins slip off. Firm, underripe tomatoes resist this; very ripe ones need only seconds.
"Very plump" tomatoesHe means dense, heavy, meaty fruit that holds its shape when quartered. Beefsteak or large plum types work; watery salad tomatoes turn to pulp on the brisk fire.
Seeds and juiceRanhofer leaves the quarters whole. If your tomatoes are especially juicy, scoop out the seed pockets before cooking so the butter does not thin into a watery pool.
The sugarA pinch only — perhaps a quarter teaspoon for four tomatoes. It corrects acidity rather than sweetening, and out-of-season tomatoes need more of it than August ones.
"Fresh butter"Nineteenth-century kitchens distinguished sweet fresh butter from salted or older keeping butter. Use unsalted, about 1 oz per pound of tomatoes, and season the salt separately.
The covered panThe lid traps steam so the quarters cook through without needing to sit long enough to brown. Use a wide saucepan or sauté pan in a single layer, not a crowded pot.
YieldFigure one large tomato per person as a vegetable garnish; the entry sits among the garden-vegetable recipes, so a place alongside a roast or grilled meat is the likely intention.

A Little History

This is No. 2833 from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium set down by the chef of Delmonico's in New York after some three decades in its kitchens. The book runs to several thousand numbered items and its vegetable chapters are full of terse entries like this one — not so much recipes as reminders to a trained brigade, written on the assumption that whoever read them already knew how hot a brisk fire was and how much butter a pan wanted. The name is a proper noun of the sort Ranhofer scattered through the volume, honouring patrons, colleagues and occasions; many of these dedications are now untraceable, and "Boquillon" is among them. What the entry does record is the confidence with which good tomatoes were by then handled at Delmonico's: peeled, quartered and barely warmed through, with nothing to hide behind but butter and a pinch of sugar.