The first edition of the Fredericksburg PTA Cookbook contained a recipe for Spanish Tomatoes submitted by Mary Alice Smith, wife of Temple Doswell Smith. He moved to Fredericksburg in 1887 to open the Bank of Fredericksburg.
Temple headed the committee that brought the Fredericksburg and Northern Railway here in 1913. For his efforts, the town of Bankersmith was named in his honor by Rudolf Habenicht.
Soon it had a store, lumberyard and a population of 50. By 1940, the Habenichts lived across the road from us. I soon discovered that Mrs. Habenicht made great molasses cookies.
Alice and Temple’s daughter, Estella Francis, was already 40 when her mom submitted a recipe for Spanish Tomatoes to the PTA’s 1917 cookbook, despite having no school-aged children. The recipe, the Smiths, the bank, and railroad were gone by the PTA’s fourth edition, published in 1941.
Amazingly, in the first edition, almost the exact recipe had been credited to Ellen Wiley Estill. It was actually submitted by her daughter, Julia Estill, the Fredericksburg High School principal, because Ellen had died the year before the first PTA cookbook was published.
I remember Miss Julia Estill well. She became a local icon and taught my brother in the 1930s.
Why Mrs. Smith chose to call her recipe Spanish Tomatoes is remarkable since it called for nothing spicy. Neither did Mrs. Estill’s Tomato Bisque.
This caused me to find a real Spanish Tomato recipe. One should remember that just to our south, San Antonio’s Tex-Mex was about to burst on the American stage, changing our concept of Mexican food forever.
But were Spanish Tomatoes a premonition for what was to come?
Spanish Tomatoes Mrs. Temple D. Smith
Ingredients
6 tomatoes 2 or 3 large bell peppers 2 onions ½ cup whole milk 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
Procedure
1. Dice peppers and onions and add salted water to cover.
2. Cook tomatoes in a second pot, then combine in one, and add a pinch of soda.
3. Bring to boil, then add milk and flour, and beat until smooth.
4. Add butter and salt before removing from heat and serve very hot.
The only heat came from cooking. It remained unclear why this was called Spanish Tomatoes. Mrs. J.T. Estill’s recipe for a Tomato Bisque was nearly identical. The difference — Mrs. Smith’s recipe called for bell peppers and onions while Mrs. Estill’s relied on black pepper and soda.
Tomato Bisque Mrs. J. T. Estill
Ingredients
1 qt. fresh tomatoes 1 qt. whole milk 1 tbsp. unsalted butter 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour ¾ tsp. soda Procedure
1. Steam tomatoes and strain. Then stir in soda.
2. Make a paste with flour and a little milk to add to the tomatoes.
3. Bring mixture to a boil before adding butter and the balance of the milk.
4. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with toasted crackers.
With little to go on, I began searching for similar recipes. I believe a Spanish Sofrito came closest. It packs no heat either. Sofrito, meaning “to lightly fry,” is a Spanish sauce that can consist simply of tomato paste, olive oil, onions, garlic, herbs and peppers. It forms an aromatic base for a range of recipes in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Brazil.
The Dominican Republic’s version sometimes features vinegar and annatto, while the Puerto Rican version is usually puréed and often contains cubanelle peppers — sweet and mild without heat. Brazil’s variation on sofrito, is simply salt, oil, onions and garlic puréed together and lightly fried.
Sofritos, it appears, were popular in Spain, Portugal and Italy long before the wonders of the new world’s peppers became known.
Spanish Sofrito
Ingredients
1 medium yellow onion 1 large Anaheim or green bell pepper 3-5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 5-6 large, ripe tomatoes 1 teaspoon sweet paprika 2 large cloves garlic
Procedure
1. Dice onion, garlic and pepper.
2. Add and heat enough extra virgin olive oil to coat a large heavy-bottomed frying pan.
3. Sauté onions until transparent, reduce heat to avoid over-browning.
4. Add the green pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, adding olive oil as necessary and stir to prevent burning.
5. Add minced garlic and sauté for 1 more minute.
6. Add crushed tomatoes and paprika — mix well.
7. Continue cooking for 10-15 minutes, until liquid released from the tomatoes has evaporated and the consistency of the sofrito is reduced to a thick sauce. Use as desired.
Perhaps the true intentions of Smith and Estill were not for offering anything spicy, but a Sofrito or anything like it was not German. Perhaps, they, much like my oldest sister who kept advising me to broaden my horizons, were simply trying to bring a little sophistication to our sleepy community.
One should think of Sofrito as a condiment — one can cook with it, marinate meat in it, dip chips in it, make rice with it, use it on cornbread, a flatbread stuffed with filling, and even roast vegetables and potatoes with it.
Tomato cookery in America became wildly popular throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tomatoes once had been viewed by Europeans with great suspicion. Their association with purple night shade frightened many, some falling ill after eating tomatoes that had been prepared in cast iron pans.
Only later did it become known that lead leached from the iron which caused the illness. Word of the tomato had spread slowly along with suspicion. Consequently, tomatoes only began gaining widespread popularity in the 1880s.
Sofrito remained popular in Spain, Italy and Portugal. In modern Spanish cuisine, it consists of garlic, onion and peppers cooked in olive oil, and occasionally tomatoes or carrots. Sometimes other secondary components are added, such as spring onions, parsley or coriander. So, it appears the ladies of that first PTA cookbook were simply willing to accept new, promising dishes for their first attempt at a cookbook.
Any of these recipes are suitable to try, but for best results, find garden fresh, home-grown tomatoes to experience the taste of a sofrito from a century past.
