A tender annual, a native of South America, introduced before 1596. This vegetable is used chiefly for flavouring sauces; for that purpose it is invaluable. It makes also an excellent supper dish scalloped, fresh tomatoes, bread crumbs, a little butter, pepper and salt being all that is required. Put the tomatoes, cut in pieces, into scallop shells, cover them with bread crumbs, a slice of butter, pepper and salt. Send them up hot.

Tomatoes make good sauces, vinegar, etc. For recipes for otherwise using them, see "Model Cookery".

The tomato is one of the most wholesome as well as the most universally liked of all vegetables. Its healthful qualities do not depend on the mode of preparation for the table. It may be eaten thrice a day, cold or hot, cooked or raw, alone or with salt and pepper or vinegar, or all together, with like advantage, and in the utmost quantity which can be taken with an appetite. Its wholesome quality arises from its slight acidity, making it as valuable, perhaps, as cherries, berries, currants, and other similar fruits. The tomato season ends with the frost. If the vines are pulled up before the frost comes, and hung up in a well-ventilated cellar, with the tomatoes hanging to them, the "love apple" will continue ripening until Christmas. The cellar should not be too dry, nor too warm, nor too close. The knowledge of this may be improved to great practical advantage for the benefit of many who are invalids, and who are fond of the tomato.

Tomatoes And Eggs

Parboil one pound of tomatoes and pass them through a sieve; put six well-beaten eggs into a frying-pan with an ounce of butter, and fry them for one minute; then add the tomatoes with a little salt and Cayenne pepper. Stir the whole together and fry it for about two minutes, and serve.