Fried Green Tomatoes

I grew up in Indiana and we had them all summer long.

i guess you can grow up in the south and still be a city slicker i think its more of a country thing. here in southwest virginia i dint know there was any other way to eat a green tomato.

Of course Italians eat them-- they brought tomatoes to America and probably were the first to eat them that way I grew up eating them in NY(no southern ancestors either) and DH's family is Italian and he grew up eating them too.

We always had them growing up here in Georgia and still do.

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"He who is harmony with Nature hits the mark without effort and apprehends the truth without thinking."- Confucius

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, formerly Lycopersicon lycopersicum) is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, native to Central, South, and southern North America from Mexico to Peru. It is a short-lived perennial plant, grown as an annual plant, typically growing to 1–3 m in height, with a weak, woody stem that usually scrambles over other plants. The genus Solanum also contains the eggplant and the potato, as well as many poisonous species. The leaves are 10–25 cm long, pinnate, with 5–9 leaflets, each leaflet up to 8 cm long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. The flowers are 1–2 cm across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of 3–12 together. The fruit is an edible, brightly colored (usually red, from the pigment lycopene) berry, 1–2 cm diameter in wild plants, commonly much larger in cultivated forms.

The word tomato derives from a word in the Nahuatl language, tomatl. The specific name, lycopersicum, means "wolf-peach" (compare the related species S. lycocarpum, whose scientific name means "wolf-fruit", common name "wolf-apple").

North America
The earliest reference to tomatoes in British North America is from 1710, when herbalist William Salmon reported seeing them in what is today South Carolina. They may have been introduced from the Caribbean. By the mid-18th century, they were cultivated on some Carolina plantations, and probably in other parts of the South as well. It is possible that some people continued to think tomatoes were poisonous at this time; and in general, they were grown more as ornamental plants than as food. Cultured people like Thomas Jefferson, who ate tomatoes in Paris and sent some seeds home, knew the tomato was edible, but many of the less well-educated did not.

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I grew up eating them...here in Kentucky. I still make them all summer long. I've tried freezing them for winter. I tried freezing green tomatoes sliced plain...and I tried freezing them sliced and already coated with cornmeal. The results weren't so great,they tended to be mushy. I miss them in the winter

I am a Yankee with southern roots. I like fried green tomatoes but I refuse to eat grits! Fried okra is nasty...but I will eat it in soup. Is that okay?

Actually, I make fried green tomatoes a little differently than most people. I coat them with flour mixed with brown sugar; that's the way my grandma (from Frankfort, KY) used to make them. Sometimes she also made them with flour, cornmeal and black pepper, but I prefer the other. It's a wonderful sweet & sour flavor.

Can't answer your poll because of the way you worded it. Yes, we eat fried green tomatoes. Learned to as a kid because they were on every resturant menu in Massachusetts.

Love 'em here in Maine!

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Robin

Yep. My 94 yo grandma ( Nanny) is from Sicily and that is where she learned to cook them. She fries them and eggplant on a platter and has red sauce on the side to dip them in...

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Christanie Farm...living life as it was intended

A few people every year ask for green tomatoes at the local farmers market and occasionally at my farm stand...which I gladly oblige since it is "early" income.

They were my Gramps favorite, and we had them often when I was a child!! Gramps was born and raised in E.C. Illinois, as was his father, no relations south of the M.D. line.

Thanks to all for your responses. It seems that they're commonly served/found in much of the mid west and eastern US...but there may be pockets in North Carolina/Virginia where they are not routinely served, which is probably an exception/anecdotal.

Both sets of grandparents ate them. Parents ate them, and we eat them. We are from Montana westward.

I love fried green tomatoes. Shake on a little bit of red, hot sauce and let dry. Dip in egg white and then flour with small bit of corns meal.

Salt and pepper and then fry hot in Crisco. Let drip on a rack.

Eat 'em up!

Yum.

Now that's weird...I moved from Georgia to Boston and never saw them up there on a restaurant menu.

Melissa from CF mentioned last year that she cans green tomatoes to use for frying. I copied her instructions:

Canning Green Tomatoes for Frying
Slice tomatoes about 3/8 of an inch thick, stack them in the jars, add a TB of vinegar or lemon juice, fill with water leaving 1/2 inch headspace, and process for 40 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. Just stack them raw, no need to precook them. Use very firm green tomatoes that are showing no signs of ripening, the harder the better.

Not all Italians eat them. I have a friend from the Torino area in the north and he had never heard of them until he heard me talking about them. He told his mom and dad about them, they live in a moutain village and they had never heard of them either. I told him how I make them (roll in flour, salt and pepper and then fry in oil) and he translated it for his mom. They tried them and loved them! They are one of my favorite foods, I can easily make a meal of them.

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Moved from Germany to Arkansas.....met fried green tomatoes and love them.

My son was surprised to find them on a restaurant menu in California.

I really don't think they are only a Southern thing.

Ditto. I've never seen them on a restaurant menu, but in my experience in Pennsylvania, almost anyone who grows tomatoes makes fried green tomatoes. Mmmm....

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And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.. They shall not hurt nor destroy In all my holy mountain For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

I dont much care for them. If I had to eat them I would. I prefer fried yellow squash. Some people say they taste like fried green tomatoes I disagree.

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