This is an attempt to recreate an old recipe used by my girlfriend's grandmother for green tomato preserves. The recipe could not be obtained from said grandmother because she simply cooks everything until it "looks right". We based our recipe on whatever my girlfriend could remember from her childhood and some other sources around the internet.
This is a preserve that most people (including myself before today) don't know much about. Even the guy we bought the tomatoes from asked "You can make preserves from those?"
This is a preserve that most people (including myself before today) don't know much about. Even the guy we bought the tomatoes from asked "You can make preserves from those?"
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Signing UpStep 1: Collect and chop ingredients
Unfortunately, we didn't start taking photos until after we had chopped the tomatoes and lemons, so photos from that step are missing.
Here are the ingredients we came up with:
8.5 lbs green tomatoes
8 lemons
5 lbs sugar
To prepare the tomatoes, remove the stem and chop them into reasonable sized chunks, maybe 8-12 pieces per tomato depending on the size.
To prepare the lemons, slice into wedges and remove the seeds. Do not remove the peel (it's the best part!) Chop the lemons into 1/2 long strips.
To prepare the sugar, open the bag.
Don't forget the to pick up some cans. We went with a dozen pint jars which ended up being more than enough.
Here are the ingredients we came up with:
8.5 lbs green tomatoes
8 lemons
5 lbs sugar
To prepare the tomatoes, remove the stem and chop them into reasonable sized chunks, maybe 8-12 pieces per tomato depending on the size.
To prepare the lemons, slice into wedges and remove the seeds. Do not remove the peel (it's the best part!) Chop the lemons into 1/2 long strips.
To prepare the sugar, open the bag.
Don't forget the to pick up some cans. We went with a dozen pint jars which ended up being more than enough.
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Ok, moving on, your comment on the down-side to pesticide-free veges is so interesting! Don't get me wrong, i prefer to grow my own, etc, but to those who think organic gardening is easy and with no negative results this is a good way to remind them that it's not as easy as they think. My mom (birthdate 1927) who grew up on a farm (after her dad, my grandpa died when she was a child) reminises about many things but especially this: bugs... especially potato bugs. Her and her siblings would get up early every a.m., go to the potato field with a tin bucket and pick off the potato beetles. Those who caught the most was the winner of the day. Children provide FREE labor - and labor is needed on farms!
My favorite story she tells is of the "town" women who'd come to my grandma's house after Mass to eat my Grandma's chicken dinners on Sunday. She was famous for her dinners. (Grandma accepted donations for the dinner) When one town woman noticed the chickens running lose in the yard and eating bugs, not feed, she refused to come back until Grandma fed the chickens "feed"!!! (ya.. never happened) Nowadays, she could charge big-bucks for the free-range chicken dinners!
It's stories like this that make me happy to believe in life after death - I can't wait to meet my/this Grandma! :-)
I must admit "doing it until it looks/taste/smells right" is how I cook as well. I took your recipy and gave it a twist, in the form of a habanero per jar. That should spice things up :)
Cant wait for it to mature for a couple of months. It tasted pretty good before it got canned, so it should be pretty damned fine.
Handy tip, when I ran out of cans last year I froze the unmatured relish. Defrosted and reheated then canned once you have used some of it up (which was about week after cracking the first jar last year)