Round tomato sandwiches anyone?

[pterostyrax]

Round tomato sandwiches have been a staple appetizer in the Vicksburg party circuit for decades upon decades. Like most great southern food, they are amazingly simple, yet amazingly good. Just a slice of garden ripe tomato on round cutouts from white bread spread with homemade mayonnaise and sprinkled with fresh ground pepper.

My question is, does anyone make them outside of Vicksburg?

[SKinCA]

Well, they will now! That sound good.

[andiesenji]

They were certainly a staple in western Kentucky when I was a child back in the 40s. Church picnics and suppers invariably included a platter of these sandwiches with the bread carefully buttered prior to cutting so the butter was fully covering it edge to edge to keep the tomato juices from soaking into the bread. Our cook, whose homemade bread was baked in very large loaf pans, therefore produced large slices, cut the bread with a large tomato juice can so as to fit the huge beefsteak type tomatoes which were pink and yellow as well as red. I don't know when the pink Ponderosa was introduced but I remember it from about age 9. It was a rosy pink on the outside and deep red inside. It may be simply an enhanced childhood memory, but I don't believe I have ever tasted any tomato that was superior to those.

[Toasted]

I've lived in New England my whole life and I never heard of such a thing. What a wasted life! Such a simple recipe but so good. I'm going to a party on Sat. and I'm bringing a big plate of round tomato sandwiches with me. I might even share them with the other guests. Thanks for the recipe, you made my day.

[Eden]

A friend introduced me to these as part of the spread for a tea party about 20 years ago. Also to just eating slices of fresh tomato with salt - yumm! Blessings on her head where-ever she is now!

Of course this recipe requires you to make bread pudding or stuffing afterwards to use up the extra bread after you cut out the rounds - darn!

[Jaymes]

Well, they may not have been round, but every southerner I've ever known is very familiar with 'kitchen sink tomato sandwiches.' Not so fancy, but basically the same thing. Thick slices of garden-ripened tomatoes between slices of white bread slathered with either mayo or Miracle Whip.

You eat these while leaning over the kitchen sink as the juices run down your arms to your elbows.

A GRAND southern tradition.

[afn33282]

Round tomato sandwiches have been a staple appetizer in the Vicksburg party circuit for decades upon decades...My question is, does anyone make them outside of Vicksburg?

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I thought all tomatoes were round.....

[melonpan]

Round tomato sandwiches have been a staple appetizer in the Vicksburg party circuit for decades upon decades...

I thought all tomatoes were round.....

kekeke...

anyway, these DO sound quite the good.

[melonpan]

They were certainly a staple in western Kentucky when I was a child back in the 40s.  Church picnics and suppers invariably included a platter of these sandwiches with the bread carefully buttered prior to cutting so the butter was fully covering it edge to edge to keep the tomato juices from soaking into the bread.

andi, did the version you ate as a child have mayo on it?

[hwilson41]

They were certainly a staple in western Kentucky when I was a child back in the 40s.  Church picnics and suppers invariably included a platter of these sandwiches with the bread carefully buttered prior to cutting so the butter was fully covering it edge to edge to keep the tomato juices from soaking into the bread.

andi, did the version you ate as a child have mayo on it?

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I can't speak for andiesenji, but the Texas version certainly had a big dollop of mayonnaise on it. Here in VA, we're just thinking about garden ripened tomatoes (but don't have any yet). Next week is vacation on the Outer Banks, and we should be able to find some there. Round tomato sandwich just got put on the vacation recipe list . Thanks for reminding us how good they are.

[mrbigjas]

Well, they may not have been round, but every southerner I've ever known is very familiar with 'kitchen sink tomato sandwiches.'  Not so fancy, but basically the same thing.  Thick slices of garden-ripened tomatoes between slices of white bread slathered with either mayo or Miracle Whip. 

You eat these while leaning over the kitchen sink as the juices run down your arms to your elbows.

A GRAND southern tradition.

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and here we've been, up here in pennsylvania eating tomato sandwiches our whole lives, never realizing it was a southern thing...

[ldubois2]

Made them fancy last year for a baby shower in Chicago....used soft white bread (top) and soft whole wheat (bottom) cut with a biscuit cutter the same size as the tomato. Mixed minced onion in with the mayo. Adapted from a Paula Deen recipe, so they also make them in the Carolinas.

Edited June 30, 2005 by ldubois2 (log)

[andiesenji]

They were certainly a staple in western Kentucky when I was a child back in the 40s.  Church picnics and suppers invariably included a platter of these sandwiches with the bread carefully buttered prior to cutting so the butter was fully covering it edge to edge to keep the tomato juices from soaking into the bread.

andi, did the version you ate as a child have mayo on it?

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I think mayo was available on the side but mostly we just ate them with butter, salt and pepper.

Often they were set out open faced with the buttered top rounds on a tray next to them so people could add the seasonings as they wished, probably the mayo too or some homemade type dressing such as the so called "Russian" which was just mayo and ketchup mixed together or thousand island which had sweet pickle relish mixed into the mayo/ketchup combination.

[racheld]

And the round sandwiches always had the softest pinched-edged bread, from the smush of the cutter as the rounds were cut. A serrated knife could cut nice smooth edges on the squares or triangles, but the rounds were always higher in the middle, tapering off all round to little stitched edges, like overstuffed pillows with neatly seamed sides.

Southern sandwiches have never leaned much toward butter on the bread, except in more exalted circles, in which the ladies of the house had taken more than a passing interest in Trollope or Austen and read of such fancy undertakings as buttering sandwiches. Except for the little bread-and-butter fingers, a staple of the "authentic" teaparty set, whose "high tea" (sic) was touted as an example for envy and aping.

And somewhere in the cocktail circuit or the lavish wedding reception, there came to be a snuffcan sandwich (charming title) which was constructed by making any kind of fancy sandwich, crusts and all, from which little divots were extracted by means of a little silver can in which some unnamed ancestor had purchased her snuff. Of course, the removal of the layers from the can was quite dicey, as the other end was smooth and resisted all attacks from a can opener, leaving the ingenious cook two choices: Whack the can forcefully onto the cutting board several times, making the party-prep kitchen sound like an invasion of woodpeckers, or poke holes in the can with an icepick, which was then used to push the little stacks out onto the doily-covered plate. Somebody had TOO much time on her social-climbing hands.

This painstaking construction of one-bite wonders is accomplished today with little plastic doohickeys of all shapes and sizes, with dainty plungers which whisk the contents gently from their mold---I have a set somewhere, a hostess gift at one time or another, in shapes of the four card suits, but since I don't play bridge...we use just the heart shape, and that on VERY odd occasions. And maybe the diamonds, cause they're cute.

But back to the buttering...it was customary to butter what would be the BOTTOM bread only, with a little slick of mayo on the top slice, since mayonnaise is an integral part of every food Southern, from casseroles to sandwiches to Jello molds (including one recipe for a congealed salad which requires greasing the mold WITH mayonnaise, for proper release). The butter-film kept the juices from flowing downward and soaking the bread, but the mayonnaised top layer ensured the authentic taste combination.

And REALLY fancy hostesses had their cooks mince a plate of parsley, take up each round sandwich and hold it like a little wheel between thumb and forefinger, rotate it in a little dish of mayo, then one turn through the parsley, making a lovely green-wreathed dainty that Queen Victoria would have admired (but probably would not have eaten). And Miss Paula goes so far as to do a little fingerdot in the center of each sandwich, then attaches a wee leaf of the green by the mayo glue. But she also advocates a slice of sweet onion on her teaparty tomato sandwiches, or at least a scrape of the knife across the cut onion, with the juice stirred into the mayo. That is swooningly delicious, and may be fine for home consumption, but a party of behatted WMU or Eastern Star ladies would not be caught DEAD breathing onion onto the visiting Exalted Grand Matron. Not on your Shalimar.

And then there was the best-thing-since-sliced bread: ROUND Wonder. Which was also perfectly fine, except that no hostess worth her Lawry's would EVER send round sandwiches to table with crusts on, hence round cutters to cut off the already-round crusts, and the party beat goes on.

My Better Boys and Early Girls are about waist high, now, and dangle little green jewels from every bough. Soon will come the ripening, then the sandwich-making of goopy, drippy, soft-white-bread and Blue Plate sandwiches, to be consumed ever-which-way the eater chooses. Little Round Tomato Sandwiches are another matter entirely, and require a setting of Battenburg, a nice Spring flower arrangement, doilied plates, and a flock of ladies gathered in a bubble of so-so-social conviviality. The LRTS have had a long and honored history at the Southern teatable, and must be given the respect and gravity they are due.

But a REAL round tomato sandwich, cut from squashy-fresh Wonder Bread with a cutter the approximate size of the tomato slice, smeared with a film of Blue Plate, the thick, juicy ruby slice laid on and snowed with a sprinkling of salt, mayo-ed top laid JUST SO--that's all the daintiness necessary. The rest is up to the happy consumer, to plate and sit demurely munching, or to kitchen-sink the glorious concoction, consuming it all in one delicious few bites, followed by a long swig of 40-weight iced tea. As my Mammaw said: Gooder'n snuff & Better'n taters.

Edited June 30, 2005 by racheld (log)

[Jaymes]

Well, they may not have been round, but every southerner I've ever known is very familiar with 'kitchen sink tomato sandwiches.'  Not so fancy, but basically the same thing.  Thick slices of garden-ripened tomatoes between slices of white bread slathered with either mayo or Miracle Whip. 

You eat these while leaning over the kitchen sink as the juices run down your arms to your elbows.

A GRAND southern tradition.

and here we've been, up here in pennsylvania eating tomato sandwiches our whole lives, never realizing it was a southern thing...

Having spent a few years 'up north,' I often saw tomato sandwiches. But of the yankees with whom I chatted, none could recall eating them over the kitchen sink.

But all the southerners seem to.

[browniebaker]

Having spent a few years 'up north,' I often saw tomato sandwiches.  But of the yankees with whom I chatted, none could recall eating them over the kitchen sink.

But all the southerners seem to.

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Up north, long sleeves get in the way.

[Andrew Fenton]

and here we've been, up here in pennsylvania eating tomato sandwiches our whole lives, never realizing it was a southern thing...

Philadelphia is the northernmost city in the South, right? Other parts of the state even more so...

[Della]

I haven't eaten them with the crusts cut off or cut out into the circle shape - but I have been known to eat the occasional tomato sandwich.

My introduction to the tomato sandwich didn't come from the south however but from a book I read when I was in about 2nd grade (and I won't say how many long ago that was!).

The book is called "Harriet the Spy" and has since been made into a movie. The main character Harriet would only eat tomato sandwiches for lunch and since I wanted to be just like her, I ate them too. White bread, tomato, mayo - that's it.

Now, when I make one for myself I am instantly transported back in time when I was going to be "Della the Spy".

[Kevin Weeks]

Of course this recipe requires you to make bread pudding or stuffing afterwards to use up the extra bread after you cut out the rounds - darn!

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It's always something. And on the subject, this is a particularly good bread pudding:

http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2005/04/bread-pudding.html

[Lan4Dawg]

As my Mammaw said:    Gooder'n snuff & Better'n taters. 

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the Rev said that about a particular pie at a small country church "all day singing and dinner on the ground"--except the term he used was "gooder'n snuff and not near as dusty"--to which a little old lady from the church looked over at him--with the tell-tale lump in the bottom lip--and said, "tain't neither".

Then there is the story, supposedly true, of the preacher in north Georgia who during his sermon got in to the sins of alcohol, smoking, gambling, adultery, &c, &c, &c, to which a little old lady in the back row would loudly respond, "Amen!" until the preacher mentioned snuff. At that point she got up to leave. An usher asked her what was wrong and she told him that the preacher had "done quit preachin' and gone to meddlin'".

btw, I am jealous as my tomatoes are all blossom and no fruit.

[silverbrow]

I'm was just trespassing on the Southern board and came across this thread. Now being from the UK I'm having difficulty figuring out whether this thread is serious or a joke or am I missing something. As far as I can tell, this is about tomato sandwiches, with the added twist that the bread is cut in a circle and has a combination of mayo/salt/pepper on it. Am I right, please tell me this is a joke?

[mrbigjas]

no joke. damn tasty. but your tomatoes have to be good or there's no point, really.

[racheld]

As serious as wearing white accessories after Labor Day.

[julski]

I'm proud to report that we ate the first tomato of the season yesterday--

there are definite advantages to living in the South!!

But this one also came from my Earth Box

https://www.earthbox.com/

the ones in the ground will take a bit longer, but will produce much more if they don't get the *&^%$# blight.

Of course I've got gobs of fresh basil to accompany! Yum!!

[suzilightning]

Having spent a few years 'up north,' I often saw tomato sandwiches. But of the yankees with whom I chatted, none could recall eating them over the kitchen sink.

But all the southerners seem to.

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