Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Tomato is a flowering plant that belongs to the night shade family, cultivated extensively for its edible fruit.  Labeled as a vegetable for its nutritional purpose, tomatoes are a good source of vitamin C.  The species originated in South and Central America.  Its domestication and use as a cultivated food may have originated with the indigenous people of Mexico. The Aztecs used tomatoes in their cooking at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire.  After the Spanish encountered tomato for the first time they brought it back to Europe. From there the plant was introduced to the other parts of the European colonized world in the 16^th century.

The tomato is consumed in diverse ways raw or cooked, in many dishes, sauces, salads and drinks.  While tomatoes are fruit, botanically classified as berries, they are commonly uses as vegetable and side dish. Additionally the tomato fruit is also used for making processed food products such as ketchup, tomato puree, and tomato juice to name a few.

Numerous varieties of tomato plant are widely grown throughout the temperate climate across the world, with greenhouses allowing for the production of tomatoes throughout all season of the year.

History

The tomatoes are native to Western South America.  Wild versions were small like cherry tomatoes and most likely yellow rather than red.  Spanish first introduced tomatoes to Europe where they became used in Spanish and Italian food. The French and the northern European erroneously though them to be poisonous because they are a member of the deadly nightshade family.  

The exact date of domestication is unknown, but by 500 BC it was already being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably in other areas.  The large lumpy variety of tomato a mutation from a smoother smaller fruit originated in Mesoamerica and may be the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes.

Commercial variety of Tomato

The poor taste and lack of sugar in modern garden and commercial tomato varieties resulted from breeding tomatoes to ripen uniformly red. This was widely cross-bred to produce red fruit without the typical green ring around the stem on uncross-bred varieties. Prior to general introduction of this trait, most tomatoes produced more sugar during ripening, and were sweeter and more flavorful.

Furthermore, breeders of modern tomato cultivars typically strive to produce tomato plants exhibiting improved yield, shelf life, size, and tolerance/resistance to various environmental pressures, including disease. However, these breeding efforts have yielded unintended negative consequences on various tomato fruit attributes.

Breeders have turned to using wild tomato species as a source of alleles for the introduction of beneficial traits into modern tomato varieties. For example, wild tomato relatives may possess higher amounts of fruit solids (which are associated with greater sugar content) or resistance to diseases caused by microbes, such as resistance towards the early blight pathogen Alternaria solani. However, this tactic has limitations, for the incorporation of certain traits, such as pathogen resistance, can negatively impact other favorable phenotypes (fruit production, etc).

Varieties cultivated around the world

There are around 7,500 tomato varieties grown for various purposes having been selected with varying fruit types, and for optimum growth in differing growing conditions.

Tomato varieties can be divided into categories based on shape and size.

• Breakfast tomatoes are 10 cm (4 in) or more in diameter, often used for sandwiches and similar applications. Their kidney-bean shape, thinner skin, and shorter shelf life makes commercial use impractical.
• Plum tomatoes, or paste tomatoes (including pear tomatoes), are bred with a lower water /higher solids content for use in tomato sauce and paste, for canning and sauces and are usually oblong 7–9 cm (3–4 in) long and 4–5 cm (1.6–2.0 in) diameter; like the Roma-type tomatoes, important cultivars in the Sacramento Valley.
• Cherry tomatoes are small and round, often sweet tomatoes, about the same 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) size as the wild tomato.
• Grape tomatoes are smaller and oblong, a variation on plum tomatoes.
• Campari tomatoes  are sweet and noted for their juiciness, low acidity, bigger than cherry tomatoes, and smaller than plum tomatoes.
• Tomberries, tiny tomatoes, about 5 mm in diameter
• Oxheart tomatoes can range in size up to beefsteaks, and are shaped like large strawberries.
• Pear tomatoes are pear-shaped and can be based upon the San Marzano types for a richer gourmet paste
• "Slicing" or "globe" tomatoes are the usual tomatoes of commerce, used for a wide variety of processing and fresh eating.

Consumption and storage

Though it is botanically a berry, a subset of fruit, tomato is a vegetable for culinary purposes because of its savory flavor. 

Although tomatoes originated in the Americas, they have become extensively used in Mediterranean cuisine. Ripe tomatoes contain significant umami flavor and they are a key ingredient in pizza, and are commonly used in pasta sauces. 

The tomato is now grown and eaten around the world. It is used in diverse ways, including raw in salads or in slices, stewed, incorporated into a wide variety of dishes, or processed into ketchup or tomato soups. Unripe green tomatoes can also be breaded and fried, used to make salsa, or pickled. Tomato juice is sold as a drink, and is used in cocktails such as the Bloody Mary.

Tomatoes keep best unwashed at room temperature and out of direct sunlight. It is not recommended to refrigerate them as this can harm the flavor. Tomatoes stored cold tend to lose their flavor permanently. 

Storing stem down can prolong shelf life, as it may keep from rotting too quickly. Tomatoes that are not yet ripe can be kept in a paper bag till ripening. 

Tomatoes are easy to preserve whole, in pieces, as tomato sauce or paste by home canning. They are acidic enough to process in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as most vegetables require. The fruit is also preserved by drying, often in the sun, and sold either in bags or in jars with oil.