some weeks ago we decided it was time to make our garden winter ready. we picked all the green tomatoes and put them in the shed. in their vacated space we planted ground cover favas. this will help add nitrogen back to the soil. to the side, we also planted some edible favas. apparantly, they are THE thing to be eating this year. the tomatoes have been slowly ripening in the shed, until we got worried the frost was on its way and brought them inside. in order to use them up before they start rotting we looked up some green tomato recipes. amongst the fried green tomatoes, green tomato cakes and pies, we discoved green tomato ketchup. and that recipe is what has been steaming up the windows all day. forget making a fire, the steam kept me pleasantly warmed up. making tomato ketchup is a very lengthy process, moreso than tomato sauce, pickles, or canning green beans. but we now have at least 10 years worth of ketchup. unfortunately, it only keeps for about 1 year in storage....which means we have some christmas presents. what a relief. and here i thought we'd have to spend money for that tiresome 'holiday'........
Green Tomato Ketchup
6 pounds green tomatoes (or about 21 medium tomatoes)
3 pounds onions (or about 2 medium onions)
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (we used teriyaki sauce as a substitute and it worked fine)
4 cups vinegar
1 1/3 cups sugar (i used half brown mollasses sugar, half raw sugar. the original recipe called for 1 cup of honey. i added a little extra sugar as honey is much sweeter than sugar.)
Slice green tomatoes and onions; place in a large pot (this means VERY large pot. we didn't have one large enough so kept throwing slices of tomatoes in as the mixture boiled down....) with pepper, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour vinegar over all and cook for 4 hours over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Carefully puree mixture in a blender; strain through a mesh strainer.Return to pot and bring to boil; add sugar. Immediately fill 6 sterilized pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space. Wipe the jar tops and threads clean with clean damp towels. Place hot sealing lids on the jars and apply the screw on rings tightly. Process in boiling water bath in a deep canning pot for 10 minutes. The water bath could take a longer time. You want the lids to be firm when you press down on them. Remove the jars and cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. (If lid springs back, it is not sealed and must be refrigerated.) Let jars of green tomato ketchup stand at room temperature 24 hours. Store unopened product in a cool dry place up to one year, don't forget to date your bottles. Refrigerate green tomato ketchup after opening.
Makes 6 pints of green tomato ketchup.
The process is not a hard one, just a long one. The consistency of the ketchup was right on. The taste was......interesting. Definately not your standard store bought ketchup taste. It's much more tomato-ey, and has a more defined vinegar tone to it. All in all not bad, but next year the recipe will be toyed with.....
