Frost is coming tonight so I harvested all the peppers and tomatoes. Any suggestions for recipes for green tomatoes (other than frying them)? I’m probably going to make a bunch of green salsa.
Clockwise from upper left: Yellow sweet banana peppers, green bell peppers, green cherry tomatoes, mix of jalapeno and other hot peppers, red-ish cherry tomatoes, pole beans, two large bowls of green tomatoes
We’ve found that even green tomatoes will ripen if put on a windowsill. Last year, our last tomato to ripen was on December 15th!
Some of the ones that are kinda pale on the verge of turning red will ripen, but a lot of these are very dark green.
Did you put them in a paper bag or anything?
Nah. While they don’t put out the waves of EtO of bananas, ripening tomatoes are no slouch. So as some ripen, they encourage the others.
They’re excellent pickled. Especially if you do the old school fermented pickles with them. Damn fine vinegar pickles as well.
We put them stem end down on the window sills. Can’t remember the logic behind it at all. But it seems to work. The very green ones may rot before they ripen. Thems for picklin’.
Liquid shio koji is also awesome on salmon. A few squirts in a salmon filet in a plastic bag, let it sit in the fridge overnight, then broil.
It’s an easy marinade for meats if you want a slightly salty aged quality.
Very, thanks.
Bearing in mind that I’ve never pickled anything before, this is my rough understanding:
Yes/no?
that’s the basics. if a jar doesn’t seal after the boiling water bath store it in the fridge.
You can use a dishwasher if it has a “sterilize” setting. That’s often quicker if you have it.
My dad is quite partial to jam from green tomatoes.
This isn’t strictly neccisary if you process for at least 10 minutes, which is standard for pickles. Unless you are pressure canning or dealing with low acid foods (which require pressure canning).
However jars are more likely to crack if they are filled or processed cold. So it’s important to fill jars with hot brine, and keep the jars warm before processing.
What I’ve been doing is using my immersion circular to run a hot water bath. I load the jars with produce and spices, fill them with hot brine. Cap. And park them in the water bath so they stay hot while i process them in batches.
Ball brand lids no longer need to be preheated to ensure a good seal, company changed the wax formula a ways back. But it helps. Lids are single use, and jars still need to be clean if not sterile before use. Ball jars can apparently be used right out of the box, as the company cleans and caps them before packaging.
I still tend to warm the jars and lids in the water bath before filling. To avoid them cracking when the hot brine hits. Running everything through the dishwasher works, and will sanitize everything.
You need to cook the brine first. Both to pasteurize it, and to heat everything else up.
Processing hot jars also helps bring the canner/pot back up to boiling faster. Which means a shorter cook time and crisper pickles.
You want the jars lifted from the bottom a bit on a rack to prevent breakage. I use a regular flat roasting/cooling rack. At least half an inch of water over the lids.
10 minutes is the baseline for pickles. You track the timing from when the water on the pot hits 180-190, though most people run from when it returns to a boil for safety’s sake. Since the important part is the interior temp of the jar.
Only close the lids finger tight so air can escape during processing, you’ll see it bubbling out as the jars come to temp. You don’t want to crank it down as tight as you can. Jars need to cool completely before they’re done. Then you can crank down (or remove) the ring. If the center of the lid doesn’t pop down as they cool, the jar didn’t seal properly and it’s a no go for storage. Eat them first. You can process them again with a new lid, but for pickles it’ll leave them mushy.
Oh and for crisp pickles, pickle crisp (calcium chloride) works. Adding some carrots and bay leaf as well.
Tannins in the bay leaf and compounds in the carrots mess with the processes that soften produce over time. And the pickle crisp limits the breakdown of pectin during cooking.
Green Salsa!
I made some after charring the green tomatoes in the grill. Adds a nice smoked flavor. Cheers!
a small pinch of alum can also help keep pickled vegetables crisp.
Alum has been displaced by calcium chloride. As calcium chloride is less dangerous and alum does not work on cooked/processed pickled. While calcium chloride works on both fermented and vinegar pickles of all kinds.
Grape leaves work if you can get them. More tannins than bay leaves.
if you’ll note upthread i had given a recipe using a boiling water bath method of pickling since the acidity and salt don’t require pressure canning.
I pretty obviously described the same. But assuming this is in response to my comments on alum.
Hot water bath canning apparently deactivates the alum and it won’t have an effect. It’s heat at all not the high heat of pressure canning that does this. Both the USDA and other quality sources on home canning recommend it’s use only in fermented pickles. Specifying that it is safe to use at commonly recommended volumes. But does not work with “quick processed” pickles. IE vinegar pickles that have been canned in a hot water bath.
Calcium chloride works just as well in all formats of pickle. And it’s a lot safer if you get the dosage wrong.
Recommendations on safe home canning have changed a lot in the last 25 years.
Incidentally, I don’t have fancy special jars. I have these:
The small ones are unused, the pasta sauce ones are obviously recycled. They all have rubberised bits in the caps that should hopefully provide some degree of sealing.
The recycled ones have little clicky bits in the lids that should hopefully suck down after cooling if they’ve sealed. The small jars don’t.
How to tell if they’ve sealed?
