The first “gaspacho” recipe, from 1824.
Yesterday I appeared on Heritage Radio Network’s We Dig Plants, the bawdiest horticulture show on the web. Â This past Sunday’s show was all about tomatoes, and I popped on as a special guest to share some historic tomato recipes. You can listen to the whole show here.
I brought along a few tubs of gazpacho I made from an 1824 recipes. Â They were crazy delicious (I saved the leftover for my lunch today). Â Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife, published in 1824, has some of the earliest tomato recipes in print, and the first gazpacho recipe printed EVER on the planet. Â At least that we know of. Â The directions are pretty self explanatory, so here is the original recipe.
I did not stew and make my own tomato juice, I found this great, strained, tomato puree in a box at the store. Â The gazpacho was more like a cold, fresh salad, and was really wonderful. Â Carmen, one of the show’s hosts, even took some home to her tomato-hating husband in hopes that it would turn him into a tomato lover.
I also showed up with Bloody Marys–or, more accurately, Red Snappers, as they were originally known. Â When the drink was created in the 1920s, vodka wasn’t yet widely available in the United States; the liquor of choice was gin! Â The recipe for the Red Snapper, from the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis hotel in New York, is below. I actually prefer the gin over vodka; I would recommend Hendrick’s gin; the cucumber notes compliment the tomatoes beautifully.
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The Red Snapper
From the St. Regis Bar, 1920s
1 1/2 oz Gin
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
4 dashes Tabasco sauce
Pinch of salt and pepper
1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
4 ounces tomato juice
Combine all ingredients in a glass and shake or stir to mix. Â Serve chilled.
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Both of these recipes are great if you need to use up a tomato surplus; For more history on both of these recipes, listen to the entire radio show here!
And on a somewhat unrelated note, I attended my first “crawfish boil” yesterday at the Brooklyn Brainery’s Summer Explosion.  I was all geared up to eat my first crayfish, but the sight of their yellow guts spilling out of their exoskeletons turned me off.  I don’t do well with invertebrates.  Instead, I stuffed my face with peach cobbler.