Ingredients · Spice

Tomato

Solanum lycopersicum · Solanaceae (nightshade family)

Tomato
Dried tomato powder, in five products — all of them savoury blends. It is in there for umami: tomato is one of the richest ordinary sources of glutamate, so a spoonful of tomato powder in a seasoning mix makes everything taste more like itself without tasting of tomato. It also adds a mild acidity and a red-brown colour. This is the ingredient doing the invisible work in a taco seasoning or an all-purpose blend.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partFruit
KindSpice
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromMexico and Central America (domestication)
TasteSavoury and umami-rich with a mild acidity; it deepens a blend rather than tasting of tomato

How to use it

In dry seasoning blends, rubs and taco mixes, where it supplies savoury depth. Stir it into soups and sauces. It rehydrates and thickens slightly. Use it where a dish tastes thin but is already salted.

With food

Basil and oregano. Garlic and onion. Olive oil. Beef and beans. Cheese. Cumin and chile. Bread.

With spices

Garlic, onion and paprika. Oregano and basil. Cumin and chile. Black pepper. Celery seed.

With tea

Not a tea ingredient.

Its story

Where it comes from

Native to western South America and likely domesticated in Mexico or Central America; the Aztecs raised several varieties, the red ones called xitomatl, and the English word comes through Spanish tomate from the Nahuatl tomatl. Global production reached 192 million tonnes in 2023, led by China at 36 per cent. No lot origin is named in our notes.

What happened

Europe took roughly two hundred years to decide the tomato was food. The Spanish introduced it in the Columbian exchange in the sixteenth century, after Hernán Cortés, and its first use was ornamental — not least because it was understood to be related to the nightshades. It is one: a member of the nightshade family, alongside the potato and every chile in this shop. It is now impossible to imagine Italian, Spanish, Middle Eastern or Indian cooking without it, which is a reminder of how recent most national cuisines actually are.

On the shelf with it

Every product it goes into.

Every ingredient in the shop

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