Cooking with Green Tomatoes

[Mayhaw Man]

As with a lot of things, I would swear that this is on here somewhere-but who knows?

This is really good. It makes alot, so you might want to halve it (on the other hand, I quadrupled it this summer, so maybe you don't want to halve it-I guess it depends on your jar supply and your tomatoes).

Green Tomato Relish

15 lbs. Coarsely chopped green tomatoes

1 Cup Salt

1 Cup Pickling Spice (I use Ball Brand-because that's what this old recipe calls for)

10 Onions, coarsely chopped

3 tbls salt

5 red bell peppers

4 Cups Sugar

4 Cups white vinegar

3 tbls. mustard seed

3 tsp. Celery seed

3 tsp. black pepper

3 tsp fresh ginger

3 tsp salt

3 tsp tumeric

Slice tomatoes (all of them, don't bother seeding-it all pickles great)

Pour salt over toms and stand for an hour or so

Chop onion

3 tbls salt onto onion and let stand for an hour or so

Put together sugar, vinegar, and spices into a cheesecloth and tie

Cook into the white vinegar until all of the sugar and pickling spice is dissolved into the vinegar

Drain the tomatoes and the onions and add to the vinegar solution.

Just bring to a boil and get it off the heat-don't overcook! Hot enough is hot enough!

Can immediately, remembering to stir as you go to make the amount of solids to liquids even

These will be ready in about three weeks. It is great stuff as several people aroud the site who have visited New Orleans can attest. I usually send people home with some as I have lots and many people cannot get condiments as fine as this in their strange and faraway lands. Great on peas! Also on anything that you might use pickles or pickle relish as a condiment for.

One more thing-the red peppers are for color more than anything else-you can use green bell peppers if you don't feel like color is important or if you are too cheap to uy them.

Good luck. Brooks

Edited because I'm a mess.

[trillium]

As with a lot of things, I would swear that this is on here somewhere-but who knows? 

<snipped recipe>

This is really good. It makes alot, so you might want to halve it (on the other hand, I quadrupled it this summer, so maybe you don't want to halve it-I guess it depends on your jar supply and your tomatoes).

Thanks a bunch for posting that! 15 lbs of green tomatoes are about what I have, and it would be swell to get them all put up in one go. Do you coarse chop or slice them? Am I supposed to slice the coarsely chopped chunks? And just to check, the 3 Tblsp to onions is salt, right?

And lastly, for Brooks and/or other fans of this relish, how sweet does it run? Is it the same sweetness level as say, a commerical green cucumber relish? Less sweet?

How cool is this...I've made Suvir's tomato chutney and know I'll make Brook's tomato relish. I heart eGullet.

regards,

trillium

[Mayhaw Man]

Coarse chop. You can do it in a food processor, but that really can get it too fine, chunky is what you are shooting for here.

It is not overly sweet (at least I don't think so, but Maggie, Jason, Rachel, Dave and and maybe Bleachboy (I can't remember-but I still owe him dinner) all had it, so maybe ask them. My opinion may be a bit warped. )

Yes. The salt goes on the onion.

The stuff is great. Make some in pint jars instead of just quarts and have it around for gifts (Lord, I sound like Martha Stewart).

[trillium]

thanks...I'll let you know how it goes.

One last (I hope) question... any rough guesses on how much a 15lb recipe yields in terms of quarts or pints?

best,

trillium

[Mayhaw Man]

Roughly 12 quart jars (that seems to vary wildly for some reason, but a case of jars will probably do you).

[jackal10]

I wouldn't bother to skin the tomatoes. Peeling green tomatoes is tough anyway.

[Redsugar]

Last week I put up Green Tomato Chow; these are the proportions I used:

15 lbs. tomatoes

5 lbs. yellow onions (I slice them after the tomatoes and place them in a plastic storage bag overnight)

1 quart white distilled vinegar

4 lbs. (8 cups) white granulated sugar (the amt. of sugar used in pickles is, of course, variable in pickle recipes)

1 cup mixed pickling spices (I use McCormick brand, tied in muslin)

Core and roughly chop the tomatoes in the evening; sprinkle with ¾ cup coarse pickling salt; cover with a weighted-down platter. Next morning, drain off the brine well. In a large pot, bring to the boil the spices, sliced onions, and vinegar; then add the tomatoes; next add the sugar. Cook very slowly until onions & tomatoes are tender. Pour into sterilized jars & seal according to your preferred method.

Here’s my version of Tomato Green Pie:

Pastry for a double-crust pie

5 cups sliced green tomatoes

¾ cup white granulated sugar

½ cup lightly packed brown sugar

3 Tbsp quick-cooking tapioca

1½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp grated nutmeg

pinch ground allspice

1 Tbsp lemon juice

½ ounce butter

In bowl, combine tomatoes with sugars, tapioca, spices, and lemon juice; stir gently to mix; pour into pastry-lined, 9-inch pie pan. Dot with butter. Cover with top crust and seal edges well. Cut slits in to to vent steam. Bake in 425° oven for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350° and bake about 40 minutes longer, or until top is golden. Cool on wire grid. (Some people like apple-cider vinegar in green tomato pie; add a splash, if you want its contribution.)

[trillium]

So I finally got to the relish last night, and Brooks, I'm wondering what your mum assumed you knew regarding the red bell peppers. They vanish from the recipe after appearing in the ingredient list. I went ahead and used red ones because they were quite reasonable at the farmer's market, and they do make the relish pretty. Since I wasn't sure what to do with them, I treated them like the onions and tossed them in some salt to drain.

I couldn't find pickling spice anywhere, so I mixed up some of my own from some recipes off the net. I wasn't sure if Ball pickling spice contained what seemed like optional cardamon and mace blades, so I went ahead and added them to my mix. I wasn't sure how long you were supposed to steep the spices in the sugar and vinegar mixture, I think I ended up doing it for around 25 minutes. I didn't know exactly what she meant by "can immediately" but since this is a high acid deal, I just ladled it into steralized jars with hot lids and skipped the water bath. I did find that I didn't have quite enough liquid to solids, so a few of the jars have air pockets in them, but I'll just eat those first.

I was very happy with how it tasted, and I imagine it will get even better with time. I didn't find it too sweet at all, and it had a very nice savory, piquant character. I mostly followed the recipe, except I chopped up a few cayenne peppers and added them. We're looking forward to testing it on some old fashioned hog casing hot dogs in a few weeks.

regards,

trillium

[NealH]

There's a chill in the air here in Chicagoland, and I'm looking at all the green tomatoes on the vine .... so before they freeze any ideas on what to do with them? It hurts me to throw any away - it's that last nail in the coffin for summer

The Crispy Fried Green Tomatoes recipe in RecipeGullet looks great - give me some more ideas!

Edited September 28, 2006 by NealH (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

Green tomatoes will never get any better use than this

I like to zip it up a bit with peppers of some sort, but you can do that as you jar the stuff, and have some hot, and some not.

[sadistick]

Funny, I was tempted to start a new topic on the exact same subject, but for some reason my mind slipped and attention was taken elsewhere.

At this time of year, there are tons of green tomatoes still around, and seeing as we have oh...some absurd number of tomato plants this season, say...120, we have a lot of these suckers!

Fried green tomatoes is one of our favourites, fried in EVOO on a low heat, then adding some garlic cloves and small onions, at the end to caramalize.

However, pickled green tomatoes, are amazing!!!

This method is like none I have encountered before...

Slice tomatoes - Kosher salt quite liberaly, and put them in a colander, or something similar, place a plate on top, and weigh it down overnight.

Rinse off the tomatoes with regular vinegar, and start to place them in a jar, between layers adding pepper corns, parsley, garlic cloves...i add some chilli for heat in at least one batch as well...

Layer layer layer, and make sure theres not too much space between, should be able to fit quite a lot of tomatoes in one decent sized jar.

Then fill it with Olive Oil, make sure all the air escapes, and nothing peeps through the top of the oil. Seal it up, put it on news paper, as it may leak a bit, and let sit for at least 3 months.

Awesome stuff.

Brooks - That sounds like an interesting idea as well, I will have to try it out!

[andiesenji]

You can make up this pie filling and can it for use later.

Green tomato pie

and this Green tomato chutney is fantastic with meat or cheese.

Also, you can pick the mature, green tomatoes, clipping the stem so you have less than 1/2 inch of stem, then wrap each tomato tightly in newspaper and place them in a single layer basket or on a shelf where air can circulate around the wrapped fruit.

Check on the fruit once a week. When ready to use, unwrap and place on a sunny windowsill to ripen.

You can force the ripening faster by putting the tomatoes in a paper bag with an apple for a couple of days.

[dls]

I vote for green tomato chutney also. Used 5 lbs of tomatos (and lots of other stuff) to make 6 pints last weekend using a recipe that is somewhat similar to the one posted by andiesenji. This stuff is really good. Freezes up well for later use.

[andiesenji]

Since I only have two tomato plants this year, I haven't really had any green ones, or not enough at one time to make much of anything. However the nice produce man at Vallarta, the Mexican supermarket is going to get some for me.

I plan to make some of the chutney, some of the pie filling and some mincemeat - I don't really have a recipe for the latter - I just add stuff until it tastes right. I make this particular stuff with dried beef and turkey jerky that I make myself.

[ChefCrash]

We pickled a whole bunch this past Saturday. Check it out: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1276144

[silentmeow]

I have three bags of green ones sitting on the floor in the kitchen. I'm going to seal them and hope they will ripen. I've never had green tomatoes cooked. Aren't they bitter?

[gus_tatory]

my Mom makes "mincemeat" (for tarts, pies) with green tomatoes, and it is awesome. it really is a chutney recipe, if you think of it, with a lot of currants, spices, lard, orange zest.

gosh, i gotta aqsk her if she has a recipe for that, b/c it's droolworthy.

[andiesenji]

I have three bags of green ones sitting on the floor in the kitchen.  I'm going to seal them and hope they will ripen.  I've never had green tomatoes cooked.  Aren't they bitter?

←

No, not bitter. They have an interesting almost lemony flavor. I love fried green tomatoes because of the combination of flavors, the tart, lemony flavor of the tomatoes, the almost sweet crunchiness of the coating.

There are two recipes in RecipeGullet

However, I love the ones made with cornmeal, the way I had them when I was growing up in Kentucky.

This site About.com - green tomato recipes has the "classic" recipe I remember.

Some people also use crushed corn flakes and I like them that way also. In fact, I never met a fried green tomato that I didn't like!

[andiesenji]

my Mom makes "mincemeat" (for tarts, pies) with green tomatoes, and it is awesome. it really is a chutney recipe, if you think of it, with a lot of currants, spices, lard, orange zest.

gosh, i gotta aqsk her if she has a recipe for that, b/c it's droolworthy. 

←

I don't really use a specific recipe for my green tomato mincemeat - I simply substitute finely chopped green tomatoes plus 1/4 cup of brown sugar for each cup of chopped tomato, for some of the dried fruits.

In fact, you can chop the green tomatoes, mix with the sugar and microwave in an open Pyrex bowl to cook it down a bit and thicken it, then add it to the mincemeat mix.

I have posted the recipe for Pork Mincemeat and Christmas cake. on RecipeGullet.

Viva made this cake and posted some beautiful photos in this thread.

Some excellent online recipes for green tomato mincemeat are:

Here

and

Here

and

here and here.

[jayt90]

I pick all my green tomatoes for indoor ripening, every year in October, especially when a killer frost is forecast. A half dozen or so to a brown paper bag, vines included if there is room. Then into a cool basement room for two weeks or so. Then I harvest from the bags, until well into December. A few will rot, and the small, hard ones will never ripen. But what I get is much better than Calif. or Mexican imports, which atr shipped green, gassed, and bred for hardness rather than flavor.

[racheld]

All ours came down today, under the chilly bright sun. The plants were withered up past their waists, with just brown-wisped stalks still reaching upward. The tops had a bit of green to them, and were loaded with hundreds of tomatoes of all hues and sizes. There are big pans of them upstairs, ready to be used, cooked, eaten or wrapped for saving.

I did a too-detailed thing on the wrap/save thing for someone on the Dinner thread a couple of weeks ago. But it works; we always have our own tomatoes on the table for Thanksgiving, sometimes Christmas, and we shared the last two of the season on New Year's Day, 2000.

The garden is stripped of all dead or dying greenery, all the wires and cages and cucumber fences rolled and stored away in the back garden. The tiller made a deliciously-scented upheaval of the sandy earth, and tomorrow we'll scatter the several ounces of mustard and turnip seeds. There should be time to have at least a small tender crop before the snow flies. Tiny greens with their little white turnips attached, sauteed with some chopped ham, with a last-minute dash of vinegar or pepper sauce.

The little curls of baby mustard, picked morning-fresh, rinsed and spun and tossed with sliced scallions and hardboiled eggs. A quick sizzle and crumble of bacon, a sloosh of cider vinegar into the hot skillet, and the whole tongue-tingling brew dribbled over the salad, to toss til it loses half its volume and gains a delicious amalgam of flavors far greater than the sum. A soupbowl of that and a crisp handful of cornbread, with slices of the saved tomatoes alongside---that's a lunch for heroes.

There'll be fried green tomatoes several more times, and I'll check the wrapped ones every week. We'll slice some for sandwiches, we'll quarter some into a salad, chop them into salsa and pico and the season's last warm pasta/Caprese with fresh tomatoes, grated Parmesan, and some bright leaves from the backdoor pot of basil. Into the cold, dark room they'll go tomorrow, to rest and wait til they're needed.

[andiesenji]

Your post is pure poetry, racheld.

[Lori in PA]

Your post is pure poetry, racheld.

←

Here, here.

[racheld]

My goodness. Thank you. Tomatoes ARE the poetry of the garden, I guess.

[Pontormo]

Thank you for the very informative posts here, everyone, especially Andie for providing all the links to relevant threads, recipes and sites.

Rachel, 'twas I who asked you about wrapping tomatoes in the Dinner thread and you wrote an incredible post in response.

Now, I have a different question. Is there anything specific that you do with green plum tomatoes?

One of the large farms in my area is planning to bring tomatoes to the market for at least another two weeks. This past week was the first time I saw green tomatoes mixed in with their ripe standard slicing tomatoes and there were lots of unripe pale orange and green Romas, too. Shoppers were piling their bags with both, intending to use the big round green ones for the usual dishes, smiling at the prospect of frying them. One Italian man said he was going to slice his for a salad, although I thought the kind of red-green tomato served that way in Tuscany was a completely different variety.

However, scavengers focused on the bright red Romas to make one last pot of sauce. I didn't notice anyone snatching the unripe ones.