Today, tomatoes are everywhere in American cooking. They’re blended into pasta sauce, spread across pizza, sliced onto burgers, simmered into soups, and turned into ketchup for fries and hot dogs. But tomatoes had a surprisingly long journey before becoming one of the most popular ingredients in American kitchens.
Tomatoes originated in western South America, in areas that are now Peru, Ecuador, and northern Chile. Early wild tomatoes were much smaller than the varieties we know today, closer in size to cherry tomatoes. Indigenous peoples in South and Central America cultivated and improved them over time, and tomatoes eventually became a major part of Aztec cooking in Mexico. In fact, the word “tomato” comes from the Aztec word tomatl.
When Spanish explorers brought tomatoes to Europe in the 1500s, many people were afraid of them. Tomatoes belong to the nightshade family, which also includes some poisonous plants, so Europeans were suspicious of eating them. In England and parts of colonial America, tomatoes were often grown as decorative plants instead of food.
By the 1700s, tomatoes had even earned the nickname “poison apples.” Historians now believe many wealthy Europeans became sick after eating tomatoes because the acidic fruit pulled lead from pewter plates into their food. The tomatoes were blamed instead, and for more than 200 years many people believed they were dangerous to eat.
That perception slowly changed in the 1800s as more immigrants brought tomato-based cooking traditions to America. Farmers realized tomatoes were easy to grow, and canning made them available year-round. Americans soon embraced tomatoes for sauces, soups, and condiments.
One of the biggest turning points came with ketchup. Early ketchup recipes actually weren’t made from tomatoes at all — they were fish or mushroom-based sauces. Tomato ketchup became popular in the 1800s, especially after H. J. Heinz Company helped mass-produce it and market it as a safe, reliable product. Its sweet, tangy flavor quickly became a perfect match for burgers, fries, and other American comfort foods.
Tomatoes also became central to pasta sauces in the United States. Italian immigrants brought tomato-based recipes with them in the late 1800s and early 1900s, helping spaghetti and marinara sauce become household staples. Over time, tomato sauce evolved into everything from pizza sauce and meat sauce to vodka sauce and canned tomato soup.
Part of what makes tomatoes so popular is their versatility. Raw tomatoes taste fresh and bright, while cooked tomatoes become rich, savory, and slightly sweet. That balance of acidity and umami flavor is why tomatoes work in so many different dishes.
Today, it’s hard to imagine American food without tomatoes. From ketchup packets to pasta night dinners, tomatoes went from a feared “poison apple” to one of the most widely used ingredients in modern cooking.
