Fried Green Tomatoes--Epic Fail!
Posted by yabbitgirl on Feb 12, 2010 · Member since Apr 2006 · 14266 posts
I love fried green tomatoes, but I can't seem to get them right. I copied my mother's spice mix (which is the same she used for breading chicken), mixed it with fine cornmeal and fried. And yet instead of being crisp, so that when cool you can pick them up with your fingers to eat, they come out mushy and flabby and absorb way too much oil.
Am I slicing them too thick? Or is it Spanish tomatoes? I got some green-as-grass ones the other day and fried them up and got mush again. A few pieces seemed to ripen in the pan! Maybe they weren't really green enough? Maybe I shouldn't try to use olive oil?
Any southern cooks here who can help?
Sounds like your oil wasn't hot enough.
Sounds like your oil wasn't hot enough.
That's what I was going to say. Do they taste citrus-like? Fried green tomatoes always take more like a citrus fruit that a tomato to me.
I think your tomatoes aren't hard enough. If the tomatoes are soft at all, they turn out mushy.
There's actually a type of tomato that ripens green; I believe it originated in the South, and it is these that were originally used.... Have you tried double breading them? Or dredging them in flour pre-dipping in batter?
1. The green tomatoes must also be hard.
2. Do not slice them too thin.
3. The pan and oil must be hot and about half as deep as the slice of tomato. An iron skillet is really good for these.
4. Do not turn them until they are crisp and brown on one side.
5. Make a homemade remoulade sauce to go on them! Yum. Good luck.
Thanks y'all!
I think it was a combination of all of the above. I waited a day or two to cook them so they weren't hard enough. The oil wasn't hot enough. I got impatient. And the slices were probably too thin. And I don't have my mother's heirloom, well-seasoned castiron pans.