Tomatoes: Tomato Cookery

In pre-Columbian times tomatoes were used by the Aztecs and other indigenous peoples of Central America for making sauces, particularly in combination with chilies and ground squash seeds. After the Spanish conquest, vinegar was added to the tomato and chilies to produce what came to be called salsa. Numerous other uses of the tomato were developed in Mexico and Central America. The first located American tomato recipe appeared in Harriott Pinckney Horry’s cookery manuscript dated 1770. Tomato recipes appeared in published American cookbooks by 1792.