Sometimes recipe titles in hundred-year-old cook books aren’t very descriptive. For example, a recipe for Tomato Surprise left me scratching my head until I read the recipe directions. Tomato Surprise actually was a recipe for tomatoes stuffed with scrambled eggs and celery.
Tomato Surprise was tasty and made a nice presentation. I made it for a light dinner, but it would work well for breakfast, brunch, or lunch.
Here’s the original recipe:
When I made this recipe, I had a lot the scrambled egg mixture left over after I stuffed the tomatoes. The recipe author must have used larger tomatoes than what I used. I revised the recipe to indicate that 3-6 tomatoes should be used, depending upon the size of the tomatoes.
Four stalks of celery seemed like a lot (maybe the stalks were smaller a hundred years ago), so I used 2 stalks.
A hundred-years-ago tomatoes were often peeled. The original recipe called for peeling tomatoes, but I couldn’t bring myself to peel the tomatoes, so I left the skin on.
I didn’t have onion juice, so I substituted 1/8 teaspoon of onion powder.
And, I decided that the tomatoes didn’t need to be served with lettuce or salad dressing.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Tomato Surprise (Stuffed Tomatoes with Scrambled Eggs and Celery)
3 – 6 tomatoes (depending upon tomato size)
2 stalks celery, chopped
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash cayenne (red) pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion juice
4 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon butter
lettuce leaves, optional
salad dressing, optional
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Using a knife remove the stem end and the firm core from the tomato and discard. Scoop out the tomato pulp, place in a strainer and drain off any excess liquid. Chop the pulp. Set aside. Turn the tomato shells upside down on a plate to drain any liquid out of them.
In the meantime, break the eggs into a bowl. Beat eggs until smooth, then add the salt, cayenne pepper, onion powder, and milk. Beat until combined.
Using medium heat, melt butter in skillet, add egg mixture and cook the eggs until set. Periodically stir and fold the eggs until they are completely cooked. Removed from heat and stir in the chopped tomato pulp and celery. Stuff the tomato shells with the mixture.
If desired, serve on lettuce leaves with salad dressing.
I’ve had something similar. But the tomatoes were placed under the broiler until soft and slightly bubbly. They were kind of “fancy”.
They stuffed tomatoes you had sound nice.
Great job updating Sheryl, and this looks tasty.
Good call with the celery. I know the celery I get locally from the farm stand is about a third the size of what they’ve bred for shipping around the world, so my guess is that 100 years ago, this was more like what was available.
It’s good to know that I was on the mark with the celery. Now that you mention it, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen celery at the farmers’ market I go to. I wonder if celery is difficult to raise.
I will have to ask my local farmer!
The celery was an interesting addition. Was celery considered a gourmet food then?
I’m not sure, but my gut feeling is that it was not considered a gourmet food back then. I’m more likely to see it listed as an ingredient in hundred-year-old recipes than in modern recipes, so I think that it was a fairly common food in 1923.
It took imagination to come up with this idea. I appreciate your practical approach where you make changes that reflex today’s measurements or ways of doing things.
I always struggle with when to replicate a recipe exactly and when to adjust to make it more like how we’d do it today. It’s a balancing act. This particular recipe had a few things in it that just seemed a little off, so I made a few adjustments.
I think you are really good at judging recipes and making the right decisions about them. Well done!!
I really enjoy tomatoes and eggs together. This recipe is a very pretty way to serve them together. Very good find of a recipe. Thanks so much for sharing. 🍅😊
You’re welcome. I think that you’ll enjoy this recipe.