Southern Style Fried Green Tomatoes

It's sad when you have to rip all the plants out of the garden at the end of the season. We waited until there was a forecast for frost before we could bring ourselves to do it. The bright side is that you can harvest all the tomatoes that didn't have a chance to ripen. In my house, that can only mean one thing. Fried green tomatoes.

I don't like to fry things. I generally hate cooking anything that required me to stand at the stove for any length of time. (Have I mentioned that I have no patience?) For fried green tomatoes, I'll make an exception.

The original recipe I got from allrecipes.com and you can find it here. I was trying for an authentic southern recipe that would be similar to what Idgy and Ruth used in Fried Green Tomatoes. FYI, if you don't already know, Fried Green Tomatoes is a great movie and an even better book!

Anyway, the original recipe called for frying the tomatoes in bacon grease. I'm pretty old school, but even I don't have bacon grease on hand. I used the same lard I used in my chocolate chip cookies awhile back. I suppose you could use Crisco, but the flavor will be different.

Southern Style Fried Green Tomatoes

Printable Recipe

1 cup lard (not hydrogenated)

2/3 cup flour

1 1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 egg

1/2 cup milk

2 green tomatoes*, sliced 1/4" thick 

Makes 4 servings

Heat the lard in a large skillet over medium heat.

In a small bowl, stir together dry ingredients.

In another small bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together.

Dip the tomato slices into the egg mixture, then coat both sides with the dry mixture.

Place the breaded tomato slices in the hot lard.

Cook until browned on both sides

Move from hot lard onto a plate lined with dry paper towels to soak up the excess grease. Allow to cool a little and enjoy!

*The recipe calls for 2 tomatoes, but my tomatoes were small so I used a LOT more than that! It is important that they're totally green, no ripening at all!

If you need some tips on how to fry food at home, this link is very informative.

I like them sprinkled with salt. And I might've eaten a few too many....They were so good! The left-overs were good reheated in the oven the next day too! Enjoy!