Down here in Missour-uh, as the locals say, we usually don't get a frost until later in October, but we got one at our garden spot in early October. Even before the frost, I was picking off the green tomatoes, because they weren't really turning red on the vine, they were just going bad, so I decided to skip that step and just bring in the tomatoes!
So I estimate I had about 5 gallons worth of green tomatoes. (I didn't bring them in all at once, and I used some up before they were all in, so I'm not entirely sure, but about that much.) And since I don't like to let anything go to waste, I thought I'd try out some new recipes! Here are some links to what I tried, along with some notes.
Green Tomato Recipes
Green Tomato Salsa -- This turned out pretty well, and I followed the recipe to can it.
Green Tomato Bread -- As with everything I do, I adapted it to give the flour a "soak time" by combining the yogurt and flours (I used all freshly ground whole wheat, instead of any APF) and letting it sit overnight. And I used all sugar, no Splenda. It turned out like any other quick bread, and you could probably use your favorite zucchini bread recipe, and just sub in green tomato puree. I think it's important, though, to make sure the excess liquid gets drained off of the tomato puree.
Green Tomato Jam -- I really like how this turned out. I ended up adding several teaspoons of cinnamon, as I saw other recipes that included cooking with cinnamon sticks, but since I didn't have any I just added cinnamon.
Green Tomato Sauce -- I think this is what I used for the sauce... it's been a while ago, and I didn't bookmark or print off the recipe. I ended up using it for pizza sauce, and it worked really well, I just didn't stir in any sour cream. Make sure you freeze what you don't use, because it's easy to forget about in the back of the fridge... just sayin'.
Green Tomato Pie -- This recipe came out of my Presidential Cookbook from 1895. Here were the instructions:
"Take medium-sized tomatoes, pare, and cut out the stem end. Having your pie-pan lined with paste made as biscuit dough, slice the tomatoes very thin, filling the pan somewhat heaping, then grate over it a nutmeg, put in half a cup of butter, and a medium cup of sugar, if the pan is rather deep. Sprinkle a small handful of flour over all, pouring in half a cup of vinegar before adding the top crust. Bake half an hour, in a moderately hot oven, serving hot. Is good; try it."
Well, I did try it... and ended up scraping out the filling to give to our chickens and eating the crust. I think it would've been alright, had it not been for the vinegar.
Fried Green Tomatoes -- This is something I never tried. Maybe next year. Not sure how well the boys would like it.
Pickles or Mincemeat -- Thought about these options, but since we're not big on either, I decided not to. There's only so much time!
I've done fried green tomatoes. Find a recipe that calls for cornmeal, not flour, as they're tastier.
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