Use end-of-season green tomatoes to make a tasty salsa-like pickle.
Pickling green tomatoes is a wonderful way to use those green tomatoes from the garden at the end of the season as the weather gets colder and tomatoes don't seem to want to ripen on the vine any longer. These pickles make a salsa-style sauce that can be used as a garnish with chicken, fish or other vegetables. Because these are pickles prepared in a hot-water canner and there is a generous amount of vinegar making this a high-acid preparation, you can adapt this recipe to your taste with hot peppers, garlic and spices without worry. By contrast, low-acid canned goods need to be prepared in a pressure canner and, for food safety, the recipes should not be varied or adapted.
Instructions
1. Sterilize five canning jars in a hot-water canner. Heat and sterilize the jar lids in a saucepan, and set the screw bands aside.
2. Pour pickling spice and mustard seeds into a spice bag or a square of cheesecloth and tie the cloth closed. (Pickling spice is available at well-stocked grocery stores or where canning supplies can be found.) Slice tomatoes into uniform, bite-sized pieces and combine with sliced peppers, onions, garlic and salt.
3. Combine vinegar, water and sugar in a large, heavy-bottomed pot and bring to a boil. Add the spice bag to this liquid mixture, reduce the heat and continue to boil for 10 minutes longer. Add the mixture of chopped tomatoes and vegetables, bring the liquid back to a boil, and boil for another 10 minutes, until vegetables are tender and spices have infused the mixture. Remove the spice bag.
4. Remove the sterilized jars from the hot-water canner one at a time, pouring the water back into the canner, and pack each jar with the vegetable mixture. Ladle extra liquid over the vegetables in the jar, leaving 1/2 an inch of headspace at the top of the jar. Use a non-metallic utensil to sweep the inside of the jar and remove air bubbles.
5. Remove a jar lid from its hot water bath and center it on the jar. Close the jar with a screw band. Repeat until all the jars have been filled and closed.
6. Place each jar in the canning rack and lower the canning rack into the hot-water canner. Make sure that there is enough water in the canner to cover the jars by 1 inch. Bring the water to a rolling boil and process the jars for 15 minutes.
7. Remove the canner from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes. Remove the jars with a jar lifter and set on a wooden board or towel, with plenty of room for air to circulate between each jar.
8. Allow the jars to cool for 24 hours, then test seals. If all the lids have sealed, remove the screw bands, wipe the jars and bands dry and, if desired, screw the bands back onto the jars.
9. Label the jars and store in a cool, dry place. If the jars did not seal, you may either reprocess the jars (using new lids), or place unsealed jars in the refrigerator and consume the tomatoes within one week.
Tags: hot-water canner, green tomatoes, screw bands, canning rack, minutes Remove