# Use leftover Green tomatoes YUM YUM!!!!!!



## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

I see slot of folks asking how to use left over green tomatoes , because there isn't really any green tomato relish recipes, mostly whole smaller pickled tomatoes, which is not my favorite but better than nothing. 

Well here is a recipe for those late green tomatoes that I love too much. I found it through a worker acquaintance and fell in live with it, as I love fermented foods. He called it Spanish Pickles, and had it come down through his family for generations. So simple to remember

SPANISH PICKLE RELISH
In your Crock
2/3. Green Tomatoes
1/3. combination cabbage, green sweet peppers, (or whatever kind of sweet peppers you have) Onions, (light on the onions here), hot peppers to taste.
2 cups of salt to 4gallons relish, should taste a bit salty.

Be sure to get everything mixed we to insure salt and all are properly blended. 
You can grind everything through a vegetable grinder or food processor set to the proper relish consistency that you want. 
Cover with cheesecloth put your plate on top of that and submerge all with a large heavy stone or weight, be sure all crock, plate stone cheesecloth was scalded before putting relish into them. Cover crock with clear wrap then cover with towel and tie in place with string. 
Stir after three days, clean and replace covers, stir daily 4 more days, taste after 7 days if ready can and water bath. Enjoy those green tomatoes


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

The Ball canning book has a recipe for Piccalilli, which is a green tomato relish, plus a recipe for green tomato mincemeat.


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## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

I make an old family Picilli recipe that is basically kraute with sliced green tomatoes and hot peppers, in it and dearly love it. But when you have several bushels of green tomatoes left you need more than one recipe and I have quite a few some years. I can only eat so many pickled whole green tomatoes and Picilli recipes, tho they are wonderful. Relishes with mostly green tomatoes are my weakness. I've made a shredded cabbage recipe with 1/4 shredded cabbage, 3/4 sliced green tomatoes, shredded hot peppers, and used the 3tablespoon canning salt to every 5 lbs. and found it exceptional. I experiment quite a bit and have many successes and just keep experimenting using standard salt to lbs. Ad any number of veggies, root crops etc. And rarely have a total failure, and just tattoo them to memory and move on after I have made my annual necessities. 
The Picilli recipes in many books are more like end of the garden relish with lots of vegies in them. I,ve made several Picilli recipes and most are OK but there are a few that just Stand Out in my book and that's what I'm talking about here.


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## sevenmmm (Mar 1, 2011)

Thanks for the recipe Ray. Perfect timing!


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## my3boys (Jan 18, 2011)

The ball recipe for Chow Chow also has green tomatoes in it. I like their piccalilli recipe because it calls for 10 minutes of processing, unlike most other piccalilli recipes, so you don't need to sterilize the jars first. Fried green tomatoes are also an option.

Please be careful about using old family recipes that haven't been research tested, especially where vegetable are involved. The rules have changed a lot in the last 18 years. The USDA says only to use recipes/canning books published in 1994 or later. I have some of those family recipes that I would never can now, but still enjoy fresh or I freeze them.

The good news is there are tons of recipes which have been tested and are safe to use.


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## NostalgicGranny (Aug 22, 2007)

Here's one for green tomato salsa:
http://www.food.com/recipe/green-un-ripe-tomato-salsa-for-canning-393491


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## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

I thought I had more green tomatoes than I had so i ended up modifying my green tomato relish, recipe last night, 2 gallons green tomatoes, 1 1/2 gallon green peppers, 2 gallon zucchini & yellow squash, 1 gallon spanish onions, 7 smaller heads cabbage, 1 cup of hot chopped cayenne peppers, about 1/3 cup salt per gallon. I like ti use up what I have left in the garden. 
There are many end of the garden relish recipes, many called Chow Chow, Picilli, etc but many are use what you have instead of a iron clad set recipe. the one you guys mentioned above of cabbage, green tomatoes, hot peppers to taste, is what we've always called picilli, made it every year in my family since well over a hundred years ago and thrive on it. if you have a way to keep it in the crock like my grandmother did, the bacteria is touted as one of the best colon treatments on earth. far better than the yogurts sold today. Just what I've read. and since I love these far more than the fermented milks I'll go with that for me, ha ha


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Would really appreciate your telling us more about how you do the crock thing. Do you layer in the salt? What if you don't have cabbage? Does it have to be kept cool? Is it like kim chee? 



Ray said:


> I thought I had more green tomatoes than I had so i ended up modifying my green tomato relish, recipe last night, 2 gallons green tomatoes, 1 1/2 gallon green peppers, 2 gallon zucchini & yellow squash, 1 gallon spanish onions, 7 smaller heads cabbage, 1 cup of hot chopped cayenne peppers, about 1/3 cup salt per gallon. I like ti use up what I have left in the garden.
> There are many end of the garden relish recipes, many called Chow Chow, Picilli, etc but many are use what you have instead of a iron clad set recipe. the one you guys mentioned above of cabbage, green tomatoes, hot peppers to taste, is what we've always called picilli, made it every year in my family since well over a hundred years ago and thrive on it. if you have a way to keep it in the crock like my grandmother did, the bacteria is touted as one of the best colon treatments on earth. far better than the yogurts sold today. Just what I've read. and since I love these far more than the fermented milks I'll go with that for me, ha ha


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

Delia Smith's green tomato chutney...very good 



> 2 1/2 lb green tomatoes
> 2 lb onions
> 2 1/2 lb cooking apples
> 1 lb raisins
> ...


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## oldasrocks (Oct 27, 2006)

Personally I'm gorging on Fried Green Tomatoes this time of yr.


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## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

You need to be sure the salt is stirred into the batch well, in fact I try too stir and mush it up until it creates enough juice to cover the kraut or relish or whatever it is with about 3 to 5 inches of liquid. If there isn't enough liquid you need to add water that has been brought to a boil then cooled and the proper amount of salt added to it per weight of the recipe, or gallon like three tablespoons per 5 lb.s or 1/2 cup per gallon. Whatever the recipe calls for, but the fermentation need to be covered with liquid well. 
The warmer it is the faster the fermentation works, if the weather is hot the fermentation mite only take 7 days but if it's cold weather it might take three or four weeks to get the same fermentation. You need to check it and taste it so it comes out to the taste you like, then jar it and water bath. You will find out it is pretty easy, it's just to your taste. When I do a recipe that calls for salt by the lb. I weigh each batch like every 5 lb. And add the three tablespoons of salt then stir everything together. If it's by the gallon, I do the same measure each gallon and add the salt and stir vigorously, to insure a good mixing. The most important thing when fermenting in a crock is cleanliness. I always clean everything with bleach water, then I scald everything with boiling water. Then insure everything has been rinsed extremely clean and free of soap, bleach water etc. The vegetables must be cleaned of all spots, blossom parts, etc. 
When you are finished filling the crock cover the relish with a large scalded cheesecloth, use a butter knife like utensil to place the cheesecloth down between the relish and insides of the crock sliding the blade to help push the cheesecloth as close to the side of the crock as possible, no air pockets etc. Then use a plate or platter large enough to cover the entire top, don't loose a finger here, and a heavy weight on top of it to hold it down under the liquid inside the crock to insure an even fermentation. Heavy enough that when carbon dioxide is formed during fermentation it won't lift the plate out of the liquid, everything must stay submerged to ferment properly, otherwise the stuf will go soft, BAD. When you open it up, to check it. You must scald everything again and be extremely. Clean, the sides ofthe crock, etc, don't allow any scum to get around and into the relish or kraut, if you havt. Too put all new clean cheesecloth in and scald the plate Nd weight again, be sure keep. Everything super clean or you'll lose it at this stage by allowing bad bacteria to get into the fermenting kraut, relish. Use a screen strainer to or whatever necessary to skim the scum off the top and discard.
I usually save the great big large good leaves from the cabbage and use them to cover the top of the relish in a couple layers before I put the cheesecloth over the top to add another layer to help from loosing any to softness from bad bacteria. Just what my father and grandfather did so i started doing it too. I,m sur. It's not necessary? You can't hardly go wrong with fermentation as long as you KEEP EVERYTHING SUPER CLEAN. They ferment everything but the kitchen sink, but super clean is the secret. CLEAN, SCALD, CLEAN, RINSE SOAP SCUM, CLEAN , everything else is easy


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## DaynaJ (Dec 5, 2007)

Put on cookie sheet, then wax paper, I do 4 layers w/ wax paper in between each one. Freeze hard. Remove & put into zip lock freezer bags immediately. Then when you want fried green tomatoes, egg & milk them w/ flour, salt & pepper, fry them! Wa-la, good as straight out of the garden, well almost. Fry them frozen. I deep fry them. So good in middle of winter. Also, I have so many that this is a quick way to put them up before they start turning red or spoiling--Happy Harvest!! Thank Lord for our blessings!!


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