Southern Fried Summer Fruit; Sizzle Required Outdoors Only

Kentucky’s Seasonal Food Heritage

Tastes of an Abundant Season Past & Present

 Breaded Tomatoes, or “Tomato Pudding”

By Gary Dean Gardner, Independent Scholar of Southern History & Foodways

Timeline of  Ingredients

1550s-South American tomatoes grown in Italy

1710 - Reported as being grown in South Carolina gardens

1750s-Tomatoes widely grown for food

1781 - Thomas Jefferson grows tomatoes at Monticello

1812 - French introduction to New Orleans cuisine

1824 - First Virginia tomato recipes in Mary Randolph’s cookbook

1835 - First available in Shaker seed catalogs

1839 - First Kentucky tomato recipes in Lettice Bryan’s cookbook

1850s-First versions of sweetened baked tomato puddings & pies evolve in the upper South

4 big dead ripe fruits or a 35 oz. can

1 stick (1/4 lb.) butter

½ tsp. salt

1 cup sugar

4-6 leftover biscuits

350 degree oven

Sometimes the simplest of foods escape our attention as we become more globally acclimated to once unheard of ingredients and cooking styles.  Cooks, be they amateur or professional, as well as the recipients of their efforts, are bombarded in print and video, not to mention their local “mega” grocery store’s electronic end caps, by luscious looking temptations from every country and ethnicity imaginable, many ready to heat and eat at our leisure and convenience.  We get so convinced of a contrived equation where “exotic + preserved/packaged + expensive = good food” that we lose sight of the basic true mathematical fact where instead “local + fresh/raw + simple preparation – overhead/advertising = good food.”

That to me is pretty simple kitchen math, especially here at mid to late summer when the fresh foods I love to eat and cook with are so plentiful I can buy them cheaply at the farmers’ market, or even have bushels given to me by my green thumbed & fingered father-in-law whose home vegetable garden takes on an appearance likened to the landscape of Biltmore.  My counting does get confused though when it comes to tomatoes.  All of a sudden we woke up one morning, having been tomato deprived for so long, only to discover that they were ripening at a rate faster than a super computer could calculate.  Well, maybe not that fast, but I know they’re already ruining faster than we can eat them.  Ah, such adversity in life.  But, it does make us stronger, and gives us a chance to eat in its freshest form, at least for a few months, what canned tomatoes can’t quite deliver

One of my favorite summertime dishes from childhood, my grandmother’s (Miss Annie, not Nevada May) breaded tomatoes, is pretty much forgotten by many folks today as we become more sophisticated in our palates, due primarily to that lack of dependence upon farm fresh availability that generations past were accustomed to.  While I will make them in the winter using canned tomatoes, there is just nothing like a steaming hot casserole dish of home grown heirloom breaded tomatoes.

The name itself, at least as we term it in my family, is descriptive but still fails to adequately convey the use of this summer produce staple as a fruit, which it certainly is, rather than a more “Spanish” style savory dish as we might find in the deeper coastal South.  In fact, as we prepare the dish, it might be likened more to a non-traditional bread pudding or fruit cobbler than anything else.  Others have called them stewed or even scalloped tomatoes, but generally these versions are related dishes and not quite the same.

The origin for this style of cooking the once feared “love apple” seems to have its roots in Virginia and the upper Carolinas, as it is virtually unheard of in regional culinary centers like Charleston, Savannah, or New Orleans.  It may originate with the antebellum “Tomato Pie” found almost solely in the Tar Heel state.  The predominance of sugar even suggests an association with the old Moravian cooks, and certainly my North Carolina-rooted maternal ancestors perpetuated the dish in our family as we migrated westward into Middle Tennessee and finally into south central Kentucky by 1840.  In fact, the preparation style as handed down to my mother seems to be rather unique to TN and the counties in KY where early Tennesseans mixed into the more native Bluegrass population, though her matriarchal Mercer County cooks retained a similar recipe.

In essence, breaded tomatoes are prepared in much the same way as traditional Southern “fried” apples (fried being another regional term referencing the cast iron cooking implement used more so than the actual process).  Fresh tomatoes are peeled & seeded and placed in an iron skillet with adequate portions of butter and white sugar, with a dash of salt to enhance flavor.  No onions, garlic, or Italian seasonings are used here.  Just as with the skillet fried apples, the tomatoes are stirred on medium heat until reduction begins and the sugar & butter are thoroughly incorporated.  Taste as the mix reduces, adding additional salt (sparingly) and sugar per personal preference. Then, in a buttered baking dish, day old biscuits (preferably) are broken into bite sized pieces to cover the dish.  Please do not ever use cornbread, and even white sandwich bread is not really recommended.  In Eastern Kentucky and elsewhere throughout the South we find many references to bread literally being dissolved into stewed tomatoes to thicken the juice, but that is not the texture we are seeking with breaded tomatoes.  Optimally choose chunks of bread that will soak up the sweet thickened broth of the cooked tomatoes without their being incorporated into a sauce.  We want to be able to bite into the bread to which clings the slightly syrupy chunks of tomato, again like we would find in a bread pudding, only here we omit the eggs and instead add fruit.

Pour the reduced tomatoes over the biscuits, making sure all the bread pieces soak up the sweetened mixture.  IF you reduced this too much and it won’t easily pour, add either another tomato or water to thin out the mix.  Sprinkle the surface with sugar, and bake until bubbly and just beginning to dry out on the top.  The finished product should not need a bowl to contain it when being served.

As mentioned, canned tomatoes work fine, but the fresh fruit is best, particularly when mixing yellow, orange & red heirloom varieties.  By not relying solely upon red tomatoes, you reduce the acid and add natural sweetness.  On family tables in Taylor and LaRue Counties, though certainly sweet enough for dessert, we would never substitute this for the traditional sweet end to a meal.  Rather the breaded tomatoes take their place on the plate as a colorful & rich side dish, verifying the fabled Southern sweet tooth that requires sugar in all vegetables.  For what it may be worth, don’t count the calories.  Just convince yourself you’re eating your veggies, and don’t be surprised if you spoon out a second helping and opt to dismiss the coconut cake as completely unnecessary now!

Eat the Past; Live for Today!