Green tomatoes, Penna. Dutch style

Silence Dogood here. We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to respond to a crisis over at Aunt Debbi’s blog, Aunt Debbi’s Garden. (See her post “Green Tomato Madness” at http://auntdebbisgarden.blogspot.com/ for more on this.) Basically, what with the cold weather and all, Aunt Debbi had to harvest a whole whopping lot of green tomatoes so they wouldn’t turn to mush from being hit by frost. Even a Texan like Aunt Debbi couldn’t face the prospect of feeding her family that many fried green tomatoes, so she asked for help from fellow bloggers as to what to do with them. Sympathetic garden bloggers responded with recipes for green tomato jam and even frozen green tomato spaghetti sauce. But there’s more… much more. If you’re in Aunt Debbi’s situation and are stuck with a bushel or wheelbarrow of green tomatoes, read on.

Mind you, our friend Ben and I never have a problem with green tomatoes. We set them in the greenhouse to ripen or give them to our ever-appreciative chickens, who (like us) are unabashed tomato addicts and (unlike us) will eat any tomato, be it never so green or never so overripe, if offered.

However, our cottage home, Hawk’s Haven, is located in the precise middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania, which also happens to be in the middle of beautiful Pennsylvania Dutch farm country. The Pennsylvania Dutch, including the Amish and Mennonites, aren’t actually Dutch at all. (The name comes from “Deitsch,” their dialect for “Deutsch,” German.) These frugal farmwives, or fraas, aren’t about to let good food go to waste. So over the years—make that a few centuries, at this point—they’ve come up with some ingenious ways for using up green tomatoes. I’ve always found the Pennsylvania Dutch recipes for green tomato pies intriguing. And that’s just the beginning!

Without more ado, let me present some authentic Pennsylvania Dutch recipes that feature green tomatoes. If you try them, let me know what you think! Let’s start with some recipes from the Boyertown Historical Society, published in their fascinating 1978 cookbook, Boyertown Area Cookery.

     Green Tomato Pie

Peel green tomatoes and dice fine. Place in an unbaked 8-inch pie shell. Sprinkle over top of pie the following:

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 tablespoon flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

Put on top crust, make slits in the crust, and bake at 400 degrees F. until juice bakes up through the slits in the crust.  

     Green Tomato Mince Pie Filling

To make the mince, chop 1 peck green tomatoes fine and drain through a colander. Put in a heavy kettle, such as a Dutch oven, with 4 pounds brown sugar and 1 cup vinegar. Cook until tomatoes are clear. [Uh, say what?—Silence] Then add 1/2 peck finely chopped apples, 2 pounds raisins, 1 pound currants, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon cloves, 1 tablespoon allspice, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon nutmeg or mace,  and 1 pound suet. Let mixture come to a boil for a short time, then fill canning jars while hot and process. [Since there’s suet in this recipe, I assume modern cooks would need to process it in a pressure canner rather than a hot water bath canner.—Silence] Use as a filling for pies or tarts.

       Green Tomato Pie

This version’s from Mennonite Country-Style Recipes by Esther H. Shank, which won a Benjamin Franklin Award, so you know it must be good!

4 cups green tomatoes (the greener the better), peeled and thinly sliced (if the tomatoes are large, squeeze out the seeds before slicing)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1/2 cup raisins or green seedless grapes, sliced in half

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 to 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Add lemon juice, lemon rind, and raisins or grapes to sliced green tomatoes, mixing well. Combine sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon, then add to the tomato mixture. Pour into prepared pie crust. If desired, top with a top crust, a lattice top, or crumbs. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 12 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake 30 minutes more.

The ladies of the nearby Palm Schwenkfelder Church have their own ways of making green tomato pies. Try the following versions, from The Palm Schwenkfelder Church Cookbook, and see which one you like best: 

      Corinne Hoffman’s Green Tomato Pie

3 cups green tomatoes, sliced

2 9-inch pie crusts

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup water

Slice tomatoes in thin rings, do not pare. Cover with boiling water and let stand 10 minutes. Drain. Put tomato slices in unbaked pie shell. Combine sugar, flour and spices. Add molasses and water. Pour mixture over tomatoes. Cover with top crust. Bake at 425 degrees F. for 15 minutes, then reduce to 375 degrees and continue to bake another 30 minutes. 

      Mrs. Earl Scherer’s Green Tomato Pie

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 dash salt

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

7-8 green tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 pie shell and top crust

2 tablespoons butter

Combine the brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add corn syrup, lemon juice, and tomatoes. Mix thoroughly. Pour tomato mixture in pie shell, dot with butter, and seal top crust. Cut slits in top crust. Bake at 375 degrees F. for 10 minutes. Lower temperature to 325 degrees and bake until brown.

If making pies out of green tomatoes sounds too weird, how about some green tomato relish? Here’s a recipe from Annetta Martin in Wanda E. Brunstetter’s Amish Friends Cookbook:

        Green Tomato Relish

18 green tomatoes, quartered

8 red peppers, quartered

4 green peppers, quartered

6 onions, peeled and quartered

3 cups vinegar

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon celery seed

1 cup water

 1 1/2 tablespoons salt

4 tablespoons prepared mustard

Grind tomatoes, peppers, and onions; drain well. [I assume you could process them coarsely or to the relish consistency of your choice in a food processor.—Silence] Add vinegar, sugar, celery seed, water, and salt to ground mixture. Pour into saucepan and cook for 15 minutes. Combine mustard with a little water and add to cooked mixture. Cook 2 minutes longer. Pour into jars and seal. Use like ketchup. [I’d refrigerate this and use immediately or process in a hot water bath canner for 20 minutes, following directions in a trusted, up-to-date resource like the Ball Blue Book.—Silence] 

Getting back to Boyertown Area Cookery, here are their versions of Green Tomato Relish and Spiced Green Tomatoes. 

      Lynn Mowrey’s Green Tomato Relish

1 gallon green tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup salt

4 pounds sugar

1 pound seedless raisins

1/2 cup water

1 pint vinegar

1 teaspoon mace

1 teaspoon cloves (about 5 cloves)

1 teaspoon allspice

3 sticks cinnamon bark

Put tomatoes in a stoneware jar (crock) and mix salt through them. let stand for 12 hours and then drain. Combine sugar, spices, vinegar, and water. Bring to a boil. Add raisins and cook till plump. Add well-drained tomatoes and cook until tender. Can right away and allow to season a while before using. 

      Irene Breidenbach’s Spiced Green Tomatoes

3 gallons green tomatoes (1 1/2 pecks)

1 ounce whole allspice

1 ounce whole pepper

1 ounce ground ginger

1 ounce whole cloves

1/2 pound white mustard seed

2 pounds sugar

1/4 pint salt

1 gallon vinegar

1 dozen onions

Slice and cut the tomatoes the evening before using. Put salt on them and let them stand overnight. The next morning, squeeze the tomatoes out of the salt water. [Maybe squeeze the salt water out of the tomatoes?—Silence] Heat vinegar with all the spices and sugar in it to boiling and pour over the tomatoes. Pack in crocks or jars. Close tight. [Or, say, process in a hot water bath canner for 20 minutes according to directions in a reputable canning book.—Silence]

All righty then! Ready to cook up those green tomatoes? Not me! If I had some, I’d be tempted to make a green tomato salsa and convert a tomatillo recipe to accomodate them. But then, we do love our salsas.

If you are tempted to try these very authentic recipes, please note the quantities carefully: By the time you’re adding 4 pounds of sugar to a recipe, you’re making (I hope, anyway) serious batches of stuff! Adjust the recipes down to suit your family’s needs. And please, watch those primitive preserving techniques in the mincemeat, spiced green tomato, and relish recipes. if you’re an experienced canner, you can adapt these on your own. If not, for safety’s sake, better stick to the pies or work with an experienced canner. Better safe than sorry!

      ‘Til next time,

                 Silence