Beefsteak Tomato (1882)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   "Beefsteak tomato" is not in the OED.  There are over 2,800 Google hits.
   I'm not doing the "tomato" entry for the OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICAN FOOD AND DRINK--wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole--but maybe someone is, and maybe this helps.


   16 July 1842, BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, pg. 2:
   RICH EATING.--The editor of the Petersburg (Va.,) Intelligencer dined, last week, on beefsteak and tomatoes, and peaches and cream for dessert.

   23 September 1882, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (American Periodical Series), pg. 195:
   _BLOOMSDALE SEED FARM._ (...)  The names are frequently suggestive of peculiar qualities, as, for example, "Landreth's Extra Early Pea," "Heat Resisting Lettuce," "Beefsteak Tomato."

   20 July 1889, BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, pg. 6:
   It passed fields of waving corn and whizzed through beefsteak tomato patches on its way from the city...

   June 1896, NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW (Making of America-Cornell), pg. a033 ad:
   BEEFSTEAK TOMATO KETCHUP.
http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fnora%2Fnora0162%2F&tif=00805.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABQ7578-0162-90