What to do with...

[wordwiz]

green tomatoes?

These are not unripe fruits, rather they are fully mature. I've got at least two plants (I swear another one or two are hiding someplace) and they are loaded with toms. Each one is about three inches long and an inch in diamete, and weigh about 3 ounces.

They have no juice to speak of. I grinded up 12 of them and didn't get a pint of juice, nor a cup, nor a half a cup. Maybe two ounces. So little juice, I'm not sure I can even can them as whole toms, unless I add lots of water, which I am loathe to do.

Anyone have any experience with pickling toms? I could use water then, but adding spices (or maybe vegetable oil?) then add them to a pasta salad or such. Depending on how the frost is, I could easily have 16 pints of them.

Or maybe dehydrate them and then throw them into a chili, soup, or stew?

Ideas appreciated.

Mike

[thehotpepper.com]

Sliced, breaded, and fried, served with ranch dressing.

[allXbutXgone]

Fried would be my choice spice them up with some ground up peppers

the stew idea sounds pretty good
if you like tomatoes plain you could try making tomato chips with that dehydrator, just a thought

ha i'm gettin hungry again

[wordwiz]

Uh, we can't eat a pound of green tomatoes a night! I need to find a way to preserve them. The question is as what or how.

Mike

[willard3]

Green tomatos make great mincemeat for pies.

[pepperfever]

If the plants are done for the season, pull them up and hang upside down. Many of the green tomatoes will ripen that way. Can always pick all of them and wrap them in newspaper and they will ripen gradually...old timer trick. Mincemeat is a good solution, green ones will not have any juice yet. Make some green salsa or sauce. Just trying for suggestions to save them.

[okie joe]

Heres a recipe and they even add a little zest to them. I have wrapped them in newspaper and allowed them to ripen As long as its a nice cool dark place they was even pretty tastey http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php?topic=5168.0

[wordwiz]

Posters,

I don't mean to shout but THE TOMATOES ARE RIPE! They are green tomatoes, specifically Green Sausage. They are not going to get any riper, only spoil.

The question is how can I preserve them, not just for a few weeks but for months??? I cannot turn them into juice - they have next to none. I might be able to slice and dice them, but again, with no juice to speak of, canning them seems out of the question. Freezing might work - perhaps via blanching?

BTW, if you were blindfolded and I gave you a piece of one of these and a piece of a red tom, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

As you can tell, I'm lost!

Mike

[thehotpepper.com]

Salsa.

[thehotpepper.com]

Do you use as lot of ketchup? How about some homemade green ketchup, kicked up with some peppers?

[lostmind]

salsa verde?

ps - how do the green toms taste? Are they more acidy? I want to try them out...

[pepperfever]

Relish, freeze them as sauce, whole or crushed, anything you want to do with them. Frying has already been suggested and is a wonderful way to use green tomatoes. Yes blanch them like red tomatoes, cool and freeze, good and easy method of preserving them for future use.

[Chiliac]

As they have no juice and are tasty, dehydrating them would be an option I'd consider. Will probably take much less time than juicy toms would.

[talas]

Salsa is great if you have some fresh chilis you can bottle/Can it if you wish but makes a nice dish when you have the munchies:rolleyes:

[wordwiz]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to make salsa from the ones I have now. Shaun gave me a simple recipe - toms, onions, cilantro and I think cumin, along with some jalapenos. Any other ideas as to what to add? I can do it per pint, or batch wide.

Mike

[teh purple penguins]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to make salsa from the ones I have now. Shaun gave me a simple recipe - toms, onions, cilantro and I think cumin, along with some jalapenos. Any other ideas as to what to add? I can do it per pint, or batch wide.

Mike

do you like tomatillos? or are you only going for a garden fresh salsa? i love salsa verde with tomatillos in it :) roasted is good too.

[PrairieChilihead]

Since they are fairly firm with little juice, I'd say use a dehydrator. They'll keep pretty well forever that way and can be rehydrated as needed - or just used in the dry state.

[wordwiz]

I made three pints of relish. Added some japs, onion and a few pieces of a bell pepper. I also had to use one large Roma to finish up the third pint. That one tom had more juice than all the green ones put together. The green ones taste rather sweet.

Mike