Fried Green Tomato Bacon Burgers
Green tomatoes dredged in seasoned flour, fried crisp, and stacked on a bacon cheeseburger off the grate.
- calories
- 880
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 80
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 30 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Green tomatoes | 2 large | firm and unripe, they hold shape in the pan |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 1 cup | |
| Salt | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Cajun seasoning | 1 tsp | |
| Vegetable oil | enough for 1/4 inch in the skillet | |
| Burger patties | 8 | beef or ground venison |
| Thick-sliced bacon | 1 lb | |
| Provolone or white American cheese | 8 slices | |
| Burger buns | 8 |
Method
- Mix the flour with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Cajun seasoning at home and carry it in a bag.
- Build the fire and get a bed of hot coals under the grate. You want two zones: hot for the patties, moderate for the skillets.
- Set a cast iron skillet on the moderate side with a quarter inch of oil. Bring it up until a pinch of flour sizzles on contact.
- Slice the tomatoes about a quarter inch thick and press each side into the seasoned flour.
- Fry the slices three to four minutes a side until the crust is brown and set. Move them to a plate lined with paper towels and keep them near the fire.
- In a second skillet, cook the bacon until it stiffens. Pour the fat into a can, not the fire ring.
- Grill the patties over the hot coals, eight to ten minutes a side, and lay a slice of cheese on each one near the end.
- Stack patty, bacon, and a fried tomato slice on a bun. Toast the buns in the bacon fat if there is room on the grate.
This is a cooler-and-grate meal, not a pack meal. It needs two skillets, standing oil, and raw meat, so it belongs at a site you drove to.
The green tomato is the reason the burger works. Unripe tomatoes are firm and sour, so they survive the pan instead of collapsing, and the acid cuts through a pound of bacon and eight slices of cheese. Mixing the seasoned flour at home means one bag at camp instead of five spice jars in the dirt. Fry the tomatoes before the patties: the burgers hold heat under cheese, and cold fried tomatoes are limp.
Packing
The seasoned flour goes into a quart bag at home. Patties, bacon, and cheese ride in the cooler on ice, bacon double-bagged. Green tomatoes travel in a hard container or they arrive bruised.
Variations
- Ground venison in place of beef, with a spoonful of bacon fat worked into the mix to make up for the lean grind.
- Cornmeal instead of half the flour for a coarser crust.
- Skip the buns and eat it as a stack with a fork if you are short on grate space.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/bacon-and-fried-green-tomato-e3-cheeseburgers