The Dangerous History of Tomatoes

the tomato one of the most popular fruits in the entire world and yes it is technically botanically a fruit over 180 million tons are produced worldwide each year in many modern countries they can be found everywhere being consumed in so many ways that it would take far too long to list them all out however the tomato was not always held in such esteem when europeans first discovered them they were not immediately popular and among many even gained a sinister reputation for toxicity earning the nickname the poison apple where did these so-called poison apples come from why did europeans think them poisonous and how did this reputation change allowing it to explode in use around the world ladies and gentlemen hello and welcome to fire of learning's food history series a series in which we explore the surprisingly amazing origins of the food we eat every day thank you for joining us for today's episode as we look at the origins of tomatoes before we begin i'd like to thank glenn for being my most recent supporter on patreon he joins these supporters listed here who helped to make videos like this possible now then let's get to it where did the tomato come from in the first place when we americans think of tomatoes many of us think spaghetti lasagna pizza italian food it must come from italy but in fact it does not julius caesar never saw tomato in his life this association is distinctly modern the tomato originally came from the americas specifically the area of modern-day northern peru and southern ecuador it is here where one may still find solanum pimpinellofolium a plant which produces a pea-sized tomato fruit it is from this species that solanum lycopersicum the modern cultivated tomato is derived this is where its ancestors came from but not where it was domesticated it is not known exactly how but over time the species spread north and would first be domesticated in mesoamerica it is not known when exactly this happened but it seems to have occurred by about 500 bc both the maya and aztecs grew and improved upon the tomato in the aztec language it was jitter mother which is kind of where we get our word for it the spanish under our non-cortez were likely the first europeans to encounter tomatoes during their visit and eventual conquest of the great aztec city of tenochtitlan modern day mexico city in 1519. they may also have been the first to bring seeds back to europe the spanish would also later introduce them to asia bringing them to the philippines a few decades later in 1544 the italian writer pietro andrea mattioli produced the first known european writing about tomatoes calling them mala orea or in medieval italian pomi doro golden apples he wrote that they were quote green at first and when ripe of a golden color end quote this suggests that some of the first kinds encountered by europeans were more of a yellow color in fact european travelers and eventual colonists of mexico itself would report many kinds of tomatoes including yellow and red contemporary europeans finding it difficult to believe that they had discovered something not known to the ancients thought that the tomato must have been a lycopersicum or a wolf peach a fruit which scholars at the time mistakenly thought was mentioned by the roman doctor galen the idea of a lycopersicum came about from a misunderstanding of the word lycopersion the meaning of which is not known there was in fact no such thing as a wolf peach regardless the name lycopersicum stuck as the tomatoes scientific name many others believed it was a new type of eggplant evidently the chinese thought the same thing in fact the chinese word for tomato remains fontier or the barbarian's eggplant in bengal they had the same idea calling it biliti bangun the foreigners eggplant eggplants are indeed a distant old world relative of the tomato but tomatoes are not eggplants both tomatoes and tomatillos were referred to as tomates by early spanish writers which can confuse historical records this confusion stems from a misunderstanding of the aztec's nahuwada language their word for tomato jitter mottle and their word for tomatillo meltamato were both derived from the word to mottle which referred to round and plump fruits though both coming from the same botanical family and with some resemblance in appearance especially with green tomatoes tomatillos and tomatoes belong to completely separate genera the spanish were thus naturally the first europeans to grow and consume tomatoes although records of it are scarce in the 16th century it probably did not take long to reach portugal as well although records there are even scarcer the first known recipe book including tomatoes was written by antonio lettini in 1692 a southern italian ironically his city of naples would give birth to pizza two centuries later though the book comes from southern italy the recipe was spanish in origin not surprising as the region was ruled by spain at this time which is likely why southern italy accepted tomatoes before the north meanwhile the ottomans likely encountered tomatoes in italian ports in this time and spread them throughout the balkans and near east though tomatoes would become a central part of italian cuisine the north in this time appears to have thought more along the lines of the rest of europe as is discussed in the book pomodoro a history of the tomato in italy by david gentlecore there are still parts of italy where it is not popular many europeans were not immediately fond of the tomato while some europeans called them golden apples or love apples others called them things like poison apples and stinking apples though it was known by some that they were consumed in certain countries a belief emerged in many parts of europe that they were poisonous where did this belief come from there seemed to have been various contributing factors one was assumption on the part of botanists the tomato is a member of the nightshade family which includes plants like the poisonous belladonna and mandrake the unpleasant smell of the plant may also have contributed there were also likely actually certain inedible and even toxic varieties which hadn't been weeded out yet furthermore it may have been an ingredient in a coincidental but fatal combination it is often believed that certain unfortunate aristocrats did die from eating tomatoes not because of the fruit itself but because of the dishes on which they were consumed in the 16th and 17th centuries many plates were made from pewter which was then an alloy of tin and lead when consuming a tomato the acidic juice from the fruit could have then leeched lead from the plates the individuals in these stories would then have succumbed to lead poisoning with the only explanation people could see being the tomato now i must admit i'm not sure how true this is the deadly case of the tomato and the poisonous pewter plates is commonly brought up but i was not able to find much reinforcing it it may just be a myth for the death to be instant it would have had to have been a significant amount of lead though the belief that the tomato was poisonous was common especially in 17th century northern europe it seems that the extent to which people believed that tomatoes were poisonous and the length of time that this rumor persisted may be slightly exaggerated by historians this was certainly not the only factor slowing the tomato spread for example even when it was realized that it was safe it was still considered potentially bad for the health by many of the experts of the day often because of its acidity ironically others would promote it for its supposed medicinal properties as we know today these debates which lasted for centuries were often arguments of pseudoscience versus pseudoscience secondly tomatoes like warm summers which were not the norm in northern europe thus slowing their spread finally it seems that there were a noteworthy number of people who simply didn't like them thus when they were grown by people such as the english in this time it was often for ornamental purposes it seems ridiculous to us today that people would think that they were poisonous but it seems overall they were not very well known in this time and were not popular enough among the people who did try them to overturn the stigma the fear that they were poisonous would gradually lighten although it did carry on among some into the early 18th century however it seems that by the middle of the 18th century the british people had begun to accept them the anglo-irish botanist sir hans sloane is credited with transporting the word tomato from spanish to english replacing names like love apples throughout the subsequent century it was a word which he picked up from jamaica which was transferred from the spanish to the british in 1655. ironically though originating in mesoamerica it was the europeans who introduced the tomato to the british north american colonies that would become the us and canada by the early 18th century for the various aforementioned reasons it was slow to spread there as well slower even than in britain in the decades following american independence it was popular in some areas like the coasts of the carolinas and french-influenced louisiana but remained obscure in others like the north and interior president thomas jefferson was known to have grown some at his home of monticello and may have influenced the spread of certain unknown varieties in virginia which he obtained the seeds for during his time in france and or by importing them from mexico according to andrew f smith in his book the tomato in america the tomatoes slowly became popular across the u.s in the first half of the 19th century also according to smith in 1841 a horticulturist from massachusetts named jw russell stated that the tomato was an indispensable dish for every table throughout the summer months at some point around this time americans began to refer to tomatoes as tomatoes in the 1850s and 60s the canning industry took off which helped to preserve this highly perishable fruit the tomato is known to mutate easily allowing growers to easily produce new varieties which they actively did in the 19th and 20th centuries perhaps the most prodigious of tomato breeders was a man named alexander w livingston from reynoldsburg ohio from 1870 to 1893 he produced 17 new varieties because of his efforts reynoldsburg considers itself the home of the commercial tomato and in fact holds a tomato festival each year it is one of many tomato centered events held around the world another example is the tomatina in the town of bunol spain which takes place on the last wednesday of august the purpose of this festival is for members of the community to pelt each other with tomatoes today china leads the way in tomato production producing 63 million tons of the 180 produced worldwide in 2019 the tomato continues to be a majorly popular food however despite its popularity it isn't quite what it used to be modern varieties common in stores and even most sold for growing in gardens were bred for size durability and appearance however the selection for these traits seems to have had a negative effect on taste and so the quality of the taste of the common tomato has declined in the past century some geneticists and farmers have recognized this issue and some have even taken to solving it although in truth gardeners are often able to obtain and grow these heirloom varieties on their own the story of the tomato is fascinating and complex and clearly as we continue to seek to improve it it is not over yet ladies and gentlemen time for a brief announcement the next video in this series will be uploaded to a separate channel here on youtube this being my science channel lucinox you may find the link to that in the description be sure to join us there next friday as we look at how prehistoric animals helped to shape the development of the foods we eat today i hope you enjoyed this video if so i would invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe to see more videos like this in the future to help support the cost of producing these videos a donation on patreon would be a big help a special thanks to our current patrons once again listed here fire of learning is also on instagram and as i said i have a science channel called lusinox which you may also enjoy so come check those out too thank you for watching

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 738,413

Keywords: Tomatillo, Tomatl, Columbian Exchange, Stinking apples, Origins

Id: AG9Oc6TxDXU

Length: 14min 10sec (850 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021