Country cookin’ Gladys Taber is a little-known American gem. Her Fried Red Tomatoes Recipe is simple to make, yet gourmet to the taste buds.
How nice to discover someone who was writing about gardening, cooking, country living, the coziness of home and family and the beauty of nature — and was doing it decades ago — during the suburbanizing 1950s, the plasticine 60s and wrapping up her career in the 70s, when there was finally a turnabout in the appreciation of Mother Earth. (Remember natural-eating Euell Gibbons, and Johnny Carson doing funny skits about Euell Gibbons eating twigs and leaves?)
Gladys Taber came from an era of literary nonfiction, when writers mused and observed rather than wrote a stream of how-to pieces. (I am guilty myself of spending the 90s writing “how to get flat abs” and “build big biceps” for men’s fitness magazines). Her column “Diary of Domesticity” began in Ladies Home Journal in November 1937, and she wrote a similar column, “Butternut Wisdom” for Family Circle from 1959 to 1967. Writing about gardening, raising animals, pets, and cooking dominated the themes of her columns, much like these very blogs on GRIT.com.
Most of the time, she lived in Stillmeadow, a 1690 farmhouse near Southbury, Connecticut. It was a home she refurbished over many years, with the amusing progress, or lack thereof, documented in her writing.
A prolific and eccentric writer
She wrote more than 50 books. Among the most well-known are Harvest of Yesteryears (1976) and Country Chronicle (1974). Of her cookbooks, the best is Gladys Taber’s Stillmeadow Cookbook (1965). Many of her narrative books contain recipes, too, written like this: “Then I add a cup or so of carrots cut in pieces, quartered onions or small white ones, half a parsnip, and, if I have it, a wedge or so of turnip. On my next trip through the kitchen, I add some celery and quartered potatoes … when I get around to it, I add some tomato paste…”
Her cookbooks are reflective of an earlier era, and curiously contain instructions like “Accent can improve anything,” when any good cook now knows that Accent is pure MSG. But for home cooking, the recipes can’t be beat. She had an ample garden and created a bevy of great vegetable recipes.
Fried Red Tomatoes Recipe
This Fried Red Tomatoes Recipe springs from her “Fried Tomatoes” recipe, which has a gravy made from the drippings, flour and “top milk.” Another similar recipe, “Fried Tomato Bake,” she recommends for a dinner party because “who wants to stand watching frying tomatoes when the guests are in the living room having fun?” Hmm, I don’t recall ever having that dilemma. Her recipe says to use green or red tomatoes, but with red, ripe tomatoes and tarragon, it’s a tantalizing side dish. It seems very simple, but it tastes complex.
She’s right, it is best to stay close by when you’re making these. They are worth it.