Cocktails from love apples

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== CHAT Wednesday, August 22, 1934.

(FOR BROADCAST USE ONLY)

Subject: "Cocktails from Love Apples." Information approved by the Bureau of
Plant Industry and the Bureau of Home Economics, U.S.D.A.

-~00000~—

Whenever you feel discouraged about success in this world, just think of
the tomato and cheer up. For the tomato is a vegetable that rose to fame and
fortune in spite of starting out with a bad reputation -- in fact, the worst
Possible reputation.

Imagine how horrified our great-grandmothers would have been if they could
‘have looked ahead to this year 1934 and could have seen a city in Texas celebrat-
“ing a tomato festival where one of the prettiest girls in the state was crowned
Queen of Tomatoes before thousands of good citizens who raised or canned or at
Yeast ate tomatoes as a common article of diet. This recent celebration was
Supposed to commemorate the centenary of the tomato as a food, though, of course,
mo one knows just when people became brave enough to eat one. We do know that
before 1800 Americans considered tomatoes pure poison. At that time they were
Called "love apples," a name that came from the French who were a little bolder

@nd apparently more romantic, because they occasionally indulged in a tomato as

.

@ love potion. But in this country only people supposed to be witches would even
taste a tomato.

Well, Thomas Jefferson was ahead of his time in more ways than one. He
grew tomato plants on his Virginia farm and actually dared use the fruit in
Sauces and soup. But a woman born in Trenton, llew Jersey, as late as 1833
Teported that when she was a child and tasted a tomato -- grown for decorative
purposes only -- her parents rushed her to a doctor, expecting her to die every
Mimute. Yet less than a hundred years later, canneries in this country were
turning out between 15 and 20 million cases of canned tomato products, and
thrifty housewives put up countless millions of tomatoes at home. Also we ate
@ vast number of fresh tomatoes. In 1941 tomato canning was a thirty-three
Million dollar industry. You may be interested to know that the three states
that can the most tomatoes commercially are Maryland, Indiana and California.

But the canned tomato product that has the most amazing record is tomato
guice, which we often drink just plain as an appetizer or season and spice and
serve in chilled cocktails. Fancy how our great-grandparents would have felt if
they had known that their descendants would some day be feeding love-apple juice
to babies and invalids and drinking love-apple cocktails to start their meals!

The rise in tomato juice sales has been the most spectacular of any food product
during the depression. Before 192%, tomato juice was canned in very small amounts.
Yet last year, only five years later, tomato juice was in demand in every
restaurant in the country. It has passed the fad stage and become a national
drink. Government standards of quality apply to tomato juice as to other canned

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Now if you have any surplus tomatoes in your garden this summer, by all
jeans put them up while they're finest in color and flavor, ripe and bright
colored, but not too ripe. Tomatoes are the very easiest vegetable to can and
they're some of our most valuable foods because they're rich in that elusive
fitamin C, so necessary for health and so hard to get on a low-cost winter diet.
Miso, tomatoes provide a refreshing flavor that peps up winter meals. Because
tomatoes are acid, you cafiffhem safely in an open kettle. You don't have to use

pressure cooker as you do for other vegetables. And because they are acid, the
eating doesn't destroy their vitamin C.

| But here's a point that the experts in canning at the Bureau of Home
Beonomics emphasize. They say never to try to can any tomato that shows even
Slight signs of decay or mold. One soft spot affects the flavor of the whole
tomato, just as a decayed spot in an orange spoils the whole orange. Worse than
| $hat, one tomato that is "off flavor" can spoil the taste of the whole batch that
| you are canning.

For the sake of color and flavor, save your perfect tomatoes for canning
ir for making plain canned juice. The tomatoes that are not quite perfect but
§till very good, those that need to have a green unripe spot or some other small
Meemish removed, you can use for catsup or chili smuce or soup. But be sure to
Memout any unripe spot for this may give a bittor taste. And be sure never to
| Use any tomato that shows signs of spoilaze.

The experts say that when you are working with tomatoes, you'll have better
ssults if you handle them in small lots and work fast. Don't try to make more
} one or two gallons of juice, say, at atime. If the juice has to stand, it
oses flavor and vitamin value.

; Now here are directions for putting up tomato juice at home. First, of
Course, use well-ripened, nerfectly sound tomatoes. Cut them in small pieces and
let them simmer just enough to make them soft. When they're soft, press them hot

rough a sieve -- a sieve fine enough to tale out secds and skins and still let
the pulp through. Measure the juice and for cach quart add half to one teaspoon
of Balt. bkeave out the salt, if the juice is for a baby or for an invalid ona
Ssalt-free diet.

You can use either glass jars or tin for your canned tomato juice. Glass
Jars make the job simple and easy,for you don't have to process them after
Sealing. When the tomato juice is ready to can, heat it quickly, just to boiling.
Don't let it cook for an instant longer than you can help. This saves mich of the
fresh flavor and color. ifow, pour the hot juice into the hot sterilized jars,
filling them right up to the top, and seal them at once. That's all there is to
| @anning the juice in glass. Simply set the jars aside to cool out of drafts.
| Kad then store them in a dark cool place to preserve the color and flavor.

Canning juice in tin is a little different from canning in glass. When
_ you are using tin cans, you heat the tomato juice just to the simmering point.
| Burn off the heat before the juice comes to a boil. Then pour the hot juice
_ into the tin cans until they are full. Seal them and immediately process them
_ for five mimtes in a boiling water bath, counting time when the water actually
| boils, not before. fter processing, cool the tin cans of tomato juice at once
in running water.

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