How Did the Tomato First Appear? Date

No matter what time of the day you are reading this article, we are sure that it has been a few hours at most since you have eaten tomatoes or a tomato-based meal. Because tomato is a fruit that can be eaten alone in Turkish cuisine and adds flavor to all kinds of dishes. Yes, tomato is a fruit. Today, it is indispensable for our tables. many fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes and potatoes, It has not been a long time since he entered our lives.

Not only us, but also Europeans got acquainted with tomatoes too late. Because it was a fruit that used to grow on a distant continent. It was only a few centuries ago that he came to the old continent and met the people there. So much so that when Europeans first met this fruit, they didn’t eat it for a long time because they thought it was poisonous. Let’s take a little trip back in time and How did tomatoes first appear? Let’s take a closer look at the history of tomatoes through the question.

First, let’s get to know the tomato:

Tomato is an edible fruit from the nightshade family, which is considered a flowering plant. It is a rich source of vitamin C. It is considered extremely healthy due to its fibrous structure and having vitamins A and E. It can be consumed raw as well as used in countless dishes. Most of the tomatoes produced today are used in the manufacture of by-products such as canned food, tomato juice, ketchup, puree, tomato paste, dried tomatoes.

The tomato plant has been around the world for millions of years:

It is not known exactly when the first tomato plant appeared, but according to estimates a prehistoric plant in the South American region nightshade With the evolution of the species, plants of fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, tobacco, potatoes and peppers emerged. The domestication of the tomato took place several thousand years ago.

In the lands between Mexico and the northern part of Costa Rica around 500 BC where the tomato was first domesticated is being considered. As the dominant civilization of the region, the Aztecs were using the tomato. This usage later spread to the Central and South American region. The tomato was even thought to have hallucinogenic effects.

Europeans meet tomatoes:

While South and North Americans have lived peacefully for thousands of years, a traveler named Christopher Columbus embarked on a quest to find a new continent. Although not certain, Columbus discovered the Americas in 1493. But it was Hernán Cortés, not Columbus, who brought the tomato to Europe.

a Spaniard who participated in the exploration of new continents Hernán Cortés is known as the name who discovered the Aztecs in South America. After the sacking of Tenochtítlan and the killing of countless people, Cortés returned home proudly a conqueror, bringing with him a fruit that no one in the old continent had ever seen; tomatoes.

For many years they believed that the tomato was poisonous:

If you are a little familiar with natural life, you can see a bright fruit that you have never seen before. You know that the color red is a poison sign. That’s exactly what the Europeans thought when they saw the beautiful red color of the tomato. Nevertheless, the Spanish government liked this fruit brought by its conquerors and decided to grow it in Spain and its colonies in the 1540s. We can say that it was the national fruit of Spain for a while.

Apart from Spain, other European countries also met tomatoes in a similar period, but They could not give up the thought that it was poisonous. It was the same in England. However, no European could ignore the beauty of this fruit and used it as a table decoration for hundreds of years until the 18th century.

Tomato: love apple

Of course, this belief of Europeans was broken over time. This breakdown is the tomato plant’s It began with breeding in Spain and Italy. With the breeding work that started in the middle of the 18th century, Europeans got used to tomatoes and started to eat them. In fact, they loved this fruit so much that the Italians called it the golden apple, and the French called it the love apple. Yes, tomatoes are also included in love.

When we come to the first years of the 19th century, tomatoes, It began to spread in the Asian continent. It was Syria’s ambassador to England, John Barker, who enabled the tomato plant to be planted in the region. The sowing process also spread to Iran and China over time. The story of our acquaintance with tomatoes as Turks is quite interesting.

When did tomatoes come to the Ottoman Empire?

There are many different rumors about the Ottoman’s meeting with the tomato fruit. For example, with this fruit, which some Europeans believed to be poisonous, He claims that they tried to poison Fatih Sultan Mehmet. Considering that Fatih died in 1481 and that tomatoes came to Europe in the 1540s, it turns out that this claim is completely wrong.

So when did tomatoes come to the Ottoman Empire? The spread of tomatoes to other Asian countries with the arrival of the Ottoman Empire was in a similar period. It happened in the 19th century. However, the reason why we used tomatoes in our kitchen was not because we were looking for a new taste, we were just emulating Europeans.

For the Ottoman Empire, the 19th century was a period of reforms. These innovations were not only in the political and military field, Numerous innovations were also made in the cultural field. Ottoman bureaucrats of the period who wanted to become European took the tomato, which has become an indispensable food in Europe, and brought it to Turkish cuisine. Good thing they did.

The Ottomans met many more fruits and vegetables during this period:

With the discovery of the American continent, Europeans began to use tomatoes as well. such as potatoes, beans, red peppers, green peppers, corn, yams, and zucchini they met many more new fruits and vegetables. All of these came to the Ottoman Empire in the same period as tomatoes. However, we knew tomato before.

The first introduction of tomatoes into European palaces was in the 16th century. Probably one of the ambassadors at that time brought tomatoes to the Ottoman palace, but this tomato it was green in color. This green tomato, called Kavata, was used in the palace kitchen for many years. However, it was never eaten red because it was thought to spoil when fried.

There is one more inconsistent story on the subject. The poor people bought the tomatoes thrown from the Ottoman palace because they were red. They crushed this fruit, which they now thought was spoiled, and mixed it with salt to at least make it edible. This is the story of how tomato paste was introduced into Turkish cuisine.

It is one of the indispensable fruits of Turkish and world cuisine. How did tomatoes originate? We explained the question through the history of tomato from past to present. You can share your thoughts on how we got used to this fruit, which we have only recently met, in the comments.

You can read the history of yogurt, another indispensable item on our tables, from this content: