Fried green tomatoes are a popular Southern dish made with unripe tomatoes, dipped in buttermilk and coated in cornmeal before frying. Using an egg wash can help keep the crust intact. They are best served hot and with a traditional cooking medium of oil or lard.
Fried green tomatoes are a traditional side dish in the American South. This dish is also eaten in some Northern households and has crept into other corners of the world as well. When done well, Fried Green Tomatoes are crunchy, mildly tangy, and full of flavor. Like other fried foods, they are best served hot, as they can taste greasy, cloying, or heavy when cold.
The green tomatoes used in fried green tomatoes are not tomatoes that are green when ripe, but rather unripe tomatoes. It can sometimes be difficult to get good green tomatoes, with farmers markets being the best source. The quality of the tomato also makes a big difference: floury, hard, unripe tomatoes from the grocery store, for example, will taste floury and bland when fried. Garden fresh green tomatoes are often ideal, assuming you have access to them.
Traditionally, fried green tomatoes are made by cutting tomatoes into thick rounds, dipping the rounds in buttermilk, and then dredging them in cornmeal. However, it can be difficult to keep the cornmeal crust from falling off during the baking process when using this technique. As a result, some cooks like to create a more complicated assembly line that includes an egg wash.
To use an egg wash, tomatoes are dipped in buttermilk, dredged in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, then passed through a dish of beaten egg before being rolled in cornmeal. For a finer texture, you can use a mixture of cornmeal and cornmeal or cornmeal and plain flour. At this point, the tomatoes are ready to be fried.
A heavy skillet is ideal for frying, with a thin layer of oil or lard, the traditional cooking medium for fried green tomatoes. The Fried Green Tomatoes are cooked on both sides for several minutes, turning the crust a rich golden brown and softening the tomato. They are often served as is, although some people add hot sauce, lemon, or salt and pepper, depending on taste.
Green tomatoes work for this dish because they’re still firm. Ripe tomatoes will fall apart in the cooking process, turning your pan into a messy, icey tomato-cornstarch mess. Using the egg also helps keep the components together, ensuring that the result is a well-cooked round of tomatoes.
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