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Summer tomatoes are a delicacy. The closer you live to a tomato vine the better your life will be. There is nothing like the smell of a warm tomato on the vine, nothing. Here at Camellia’s Cottage-we not only hire a pet sitter, we hire someone to water our tomatoes if we’re gone on vacation!  We’ve even been known to bribe folks with tomatoes…‘If you’ll come by and pick up the mail, you can pick some tomatoes.’ Works every time.  We wait on the tomatoes , fret over them- we check on them, often. When we talk tomatoes- we say morbid things like –

  • ‘I think my tomatoes have blossom end rot’
  • ‘Well, the hornworms are going to get to the tomatoes.’
  • ‘I think a possum uprooted the tomato plants.’
  • ‘The birds are going to get all of the tomatoes if you don’t get them first.’
  • ‘This is the last year I’m going to plant tomatoes, so you better enjoy them.’
  • ‘These tomatoes aren’t fit to eat, they’re mealy, because we’ve had too much rain.’

Even against the odds we continue to plant more than we can eat. We’ve come to believe that the smaller the tomato the bigger the taste; but the real reason is this- you can get a ripe tomato sooner! Some people want a one tomato slice sandwich- from a tomato so big, just one slice covers the whole piece of bread! Southern cooking depends on tomatoes. Fried green tomatoes originated in the south, don’t argue with me about this. We know tomatoes, especially in the very county where I live. In the upper part of St. Clair County- the most famous and highly prized tomatoes are grown, the conditions are said to be perfect right at the tail end of the Appalachian Mountains- in that one boat shaped plateau– Chandler Mountain! People take vacation time, even plan whole expeditions to go to tomato farms, owned by men like Dwight Rogers or the Smith Family and pick Chandler Mountain tomatoes!

There are at least three things folks don’t understand about southern cooking:

  • Why we love to eat Grits
  • Why we drink Sweet Tea
  • The fascination with Tomato Sandwiches

Grits might have to wait for another time- just know that adding sugar to grits is disgusting to a Southerner. Sweet Tea we’ve already covered. Tomato sandwiches are a delicacy which can be eaten for a short span of time, only when summer tomatoes are available; otherwise you have to add things to a tomato sandwich- like bacon and lettuce or a hamburger pattie! You have six to ten weeks to consume tomato sandwiches, depending on where you live in the south- maybe less. Now, here is the recipe for one perfect tomato sandwich:

  • 2 slices of white bread– this is not the time to break out the whole wheat.
  • Good mayonnaise, smeared on both sides of the bread- this is to create a barrier between the bread and the juicy tomatoes.
  • 1 summer tomato– sliced as thick as you dare.
  • Fresh cracked black pepper
  • And a generous sprinkle of good salt, tomatoes take to salt.

That’s it. There are only a few things that you can add to a tomato sandwich. Vidalia Onions sliced as thin as tissue paper and a bit of lemon zest added to the mayonnaise if you didn’t think to look for lemon juice in the ingredient label on the jar! Add anything else and you no longer have a tomato sandwich. On the side, I like to nibble a hot skinny green pepper and munch on Golden Flake Potato Chips made right here in Alabama, with my Tomato Sandwich. Pure, simple- nothing better.

I don’t expect you to understand this if you don’t have a southern palate. For me, there is a romance to a summer tomato sandwich. Imagine it- a sultry summer morning, you sashay barefoot out to check on the tomatoes, the dew is still thick on the grass. You smell the scent of the tomato vines, you see the green, the newly ripening and the perfect red fruit. Tomato red, like polished toenails. Hanging there, tempting you to reach out and pick. Oh lord, my mouth is watering now… your hand reaches out to pick the tomatoes, the prickly vine warns you to think before you pick– is it ready or not? is there any White Wonder Bread? some good mayonnaise? Golden Flake potato chips? You pick a few perfect vine ripe tomatoes, maybe a green one or two to fry…the tiny green ones would be good pickled. Bend down to the pepper plants and pick several slender.. long…green hot peppers …perfect.   As the sun goes down, you might hear this-

 ‘Honey, do you want me to grill some steaks?’

No darlin’- it’s so hot, I think I’ll just fix us a tomato sandwich.’

‘Sounds good to me.’

I hope wherever you are, the summer tomatoes are red, ripe and delicious- maybe you’ll find it in your heart to try a Summer Tomato Sandwich!  And remember, Southern Recipes are always part passion, part potion and part inherited wisdom.

Love y’all, Camellia

*Image of Dwight Rogers by Mike Callahan from Discover – the Essence of St. Clair – a wonderful local Alabama magazine! The editor is our dear friend Carol Pappas. Click on the link  and you can read more about Chandler Mountain tomatoes! and visit their website- http://www.discoverstclair.com

48 thoughts on “Tomato Sandwiches…”

  1. I love thunderstorms the way you love summer tomatoes. And that’s a lot of love, every word of which comes across here and persuades me that this may be the best food on earth. I’m licking my lips and calculating how long it would take me to get below the Mason Dixon. Thanks!!

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  3. I love a fresh tomato sandwich, although I must confess that my version, though very similar to yours, does include a leaf or two of lettuce. I suppose this prevents me from being truly Southern. Then again, I was raised in Oklahoma, which has always been “kinda the South” and “kinda not”, with our weird little ways. But really, I’m happy with just a big ole plate of sliced tomatoes, some salt and pepper, and I’m good for hours…

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  12. So yummy!! I know that your post was about tomato sandwiches, but I had to share about grits. I spent a lot of my childhood in the South and I LOVE grits. When my husband and I married (he’s a CA native), I wanted to introduce him to grits. Well, he proceeded to add (gasp now) cinnamon and sugar after I had told him in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t oatmeal or Cream of Wheat and that you just don’t eat grits that way. He insisted that it was something that HE would eat sweet. That was until he took a bite. He immediately agreed and confessed that I was right. Now he eats them the right way. LOL 🙂

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    1. oh! I totally love this!!! one day I will write an ‘ode to grits’- I did one on sweet tea- I actually think if folks ate grits the first time without sugar, they would think of them more as polenta etc….now really what would shrimp and grits be with added sugar..just unbearable…thanks again for sharing!

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  15. Thank you for recently stopping by my blog and liking a post.
    I’m from Michigan and when my friends are sweetly offering tomatoes from their gardens, I take ’em! (I rent an apartment with no room-or permission.) My most recent tomato sandwich was just like you made yours except I used sourdough bread. I have a sort of hankerin’ for it.
    Cheers!

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  16. Namater sammiches. Sliced tomato and mayo, hint of oregano – to die for ! Then there’s sliced tomatoes in grilled cheese. Shukkins. It’s 3 AM and grocery store doesn’t open till 7…Thanks for your recent visit to my blog.

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  17. Great little blog, I just read it while in the dentist waiting room. Hello from Sandwichexpress.com in the Uk. I have a question about tomatoes, we have to buy ours is 6kg cases from suppliers, sometimes they’re really wet when they go through the slicer, it doesn’t make for good sandwich shelf life, what should I be asking our supplier to remedy this?

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    1. Hi! I checked out your Sandwich Express website! Great site! Ok, here is the thing… living in a tomato growing county- I would only offer Tomatoes when they are in season- tomatoes are a naturally juicy fruit and probably do not take very well to going through a slicer. Personally, I remove tomatoes from prepared sandwiches or order the sandwich without tomato, or order the tomato on the side. Cherry Tomatoes could be a great alternative for you- the old adage- the smaller the tomato the bigger the flavor is true. You could offer a cherry tomato as a garnish. And since your Sandwich shop promises fresh ingredients- I would honor that promise by only offering tomatoes when they are in season or as a garnish. Most people I know like the idea of tomatoes but remove them in reality. I hope that helps! thanks for stopping by Camellia’s Cottage!

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      1. Thanks, we use cherry tomatoes in our salad boxes, but looking at the new lists for 2017 there isn’t a great deal of Tomato on the production sheets. Here in the U.K. tomatoes are always in season, suppliers get them from Spain and other hot climates when they’re not grown here. Not a very good carbon footprint here in the winter 😳

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    1. I had a tomato sandwich for supper! Out tomatoes have not done well either- everyone is saying ‘too much rain, cool nights and not enough sun’ thanks for stopping by! Tomato Sandwiches was one of my favorite posts!

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  19. I’ve been thinking about Camellia’s Cottage…knowing that I hadn’t stopped by in a while. I’ve been well-rewarded with some great posts while here…as usual! I’d never had a tomato sandwich until I met my husband…from upstate New York, mind you. But his family has a farm and sells produce. Nothing better than a tomato sandwich, and I look forward to them each year. But like other comments here, our tomatoes didn’t do so well this year, so not the bounty we normally have.

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  20. Reblogged this on Camellia's Cottage and commented:

    We’ve had a good crop of tomatoes this year…and we’ve eaten more than our share of the most southern of all sandwiches…the Tomato Sandwich. I was reminded of this piece written back in 2016. My favorite line will always be – ‘the closer you live to a tomato vine, the better your life will be’ …hope y’all enjoy reading about Tomato Sandwiches , better yet I hope your summer includes some homegrown or farmers market tomatoes!

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