The Salem Tomato Trial: How a Fruit Was Once Considered Sinful

For centuries, the tomato wasn't the beloved kitchen staple we know today. In Europe, it was associated with sin and poison, partly due to lead leaching from pewter plates reacting with the tomato's acidity. The misconception linked it to mandrake, a plant with aphrodisiac properties in folklore. This changed in 1820 when Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson famously ate a tomato in Salem, New Jersey, to dispel the myth and pave the way for its widespread acceptance in American cuisine.