Green Tomato Chow
Ingredients
- 3 lbs green tomatoes, washed and chopped into small chunks
- 3¼ cups onions, chopped into chunks about the same size as the tomatoes
- 1 cup celery, sliced or diced
- ½ cup sweet red pepper, diced
- Apx. 1 cup coarse pickling salt + 8 cups cold water
- 4 cups pickling vinegar (reserve ½ cup)
- 3 cups brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1½ - 2 tbsp pickling spice tied into a small pickling spice sachet made with cheesecloth
- ¼ tsp tumeric
- ¼ tsp dry mustard
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
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Combine chopped tomatoes, onions, celery, and red pepper into a large bowl. Using the ratio of ½ cup pickling salt to 4 cups cold water, cover ingredients completely with salted water. Add as much salted water as necessary to cover the vegetables. For this amount of vegetables, at least 1 cup pickling salt dissolved in 8 cups water will likely be needed. Make sure the pickling salt is thoroughly dissolved in the water before pouring over vegetables and ensure the brine is cold before being added to the vegetables. [See Note 1 below]
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Let vegetables soak at room temperature for 7-8 hours. Drain vegetables in large colander. Quickly rinse vegetables with cold water to remove any traces of salted water residue on vegetables. Let vegetables drain in colander for approximately 1 hour or a little longer, gently stirring the vegetables periodically for better drainage.
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Once vegetables have drained, combine 3½ cups of the vinegar, sugars, spice sachet, tumeric, and dry mustard into a large stockpot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add the drained vegetables and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low (or a little lower) and cook mixture slowly for about 1 hour or so, until vegetables are cooked and somewhat translucent. Stir periodically to ensure mixture is not sticking to bottom of pot, adjusting temperature, if and as necessary.
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As soon as the chow starts cooking, begin the bottle sterilization process. Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water and rinse.
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Fill a large-sized stockpot, fitted with wire rack, about two-thirds full of hot tap water. Place the jars, upright and in single layer, into the water. Use more than one stockpot, if necessary, to accommodate all jars needed for the recipe. Do not stack jars on top of each other in stockpot. Ensure the jars are fully submerged, each jar filled with water, and that the water is at least an inch over the tops of the jars, adding more if necessary. Cover, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat slightly and boil gently for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave the jars in the hot water to have ready to fill once the chow is ready.
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After the chow has been cooking for 1 hour or so, combine the 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with the reserved ½ cup of vinegar in small bowl. Whisk until smooth then add a couple of tablespoons of the hot chow liquid and whisk until smooth. Slowly pour the mixture into the chow over low to medium-low heat, stirring constantly until well blended. Cook chow for a further 15 minutes or so until slightly thickened, stirring frequently.
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About 30-45 minutes before chow is due to be cooked, fill the hot water canner about half full of hot tap water. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat to have it ready for processing of the filled jars. Reduce heat to keep canner water hot. Note that, depending on the size and design of canner(s) used, and number of filled jars, two canners may be required to accommodate the number of jars in this recipe as all the filled chow jars must be hot water processed as soon as they are filled. They must not be allowed to cool before going into the hot water canner.
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When the chow is cooked and ready to be bottled, use jar lifter tongs to carefully remove the hot sterilized jars from the water, one at a time, emptying the water from the jars back into the pot. Drain jars well. Do be very careful as this is scalding hot water.
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Boil a kettle of water to have ready, if needed, to top up water levels in the canner once the filled jars are added.
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Remove and discard spice sachet from chow. Using a ladle, or a heat-proof glass measuring cup, and a wide-mouthed canning funnel, fill the hot sterilized jars with the chow, leaving about 1/2” headroom in each jar to allow for expansion during the hot water processing. Remove any trapped air bubbles in the jars with a chopstick or small heatproof spatula. Add more chow to jars, if necessary, to bring chow up to 1/2” from jar rims. Wipe the jar rims with a clean damp cloth to remove any stickiness that could prevent the lids from sealing properly to the jars.
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Center the lids on jars so the sealing compound on the lid edges aligns with the jar rims. Fingertip tighten the ring/screw bands until resistance is encountered. Do not over-tighten. (See Note 2 below regarding lid preparation)
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Using jar lifter tongs, carefully place filled jars upright, single layer, in the canner's wire basket positioned in the canner, ensuring jars do not touch each other or fall over. Ensure the water level is at least 1” above the tops of jars, adding more boiling water as necessary. If a canner is not completely full of filled jars, add enough hot empty jars to fill it to capacity to prevent filled jars from toppling over during processing. Make sure the empty jars are already hot as cold jars immersed in boiling hot water are likely to crack.
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Cover canner with its lid. Increase the heat to return the water to a full rolling boil then decrease the heat to just keep the water at a moderately rolling boil but not boiling over. Process half-pint sized jars in the hot water bath for 10 minutes, adjusting time as and if necessary, for higher altitudes. Start timing the processing from the point at which a full rolling boil is reached after filled jars have been added to the canner. At the end of the processing time, turn off heat and remove canner lid.
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Let jars sit in the hot water for 5 minutes then, using jar lifter tongs, carefully remove the jars filled with chow, upright and one at a time, and transfer them to a heat-proof cutting board (that has been covered with a towel to protect it from the hot wet jars) to cool completely.
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Listen for the “pop” or “ping” sound as the bottles seal over the next few minutes or hours. The lids of properly sealed jars will curve downward. Cover jars with towel to keep light out. Let jars rest, undisturbed, on counter for 24 hours. Then, after 24 hours, test each jar for proper sealing by gently pressing down on the center of each jar lid. If the lid is already pressed downward, and does not pop back up, it is properly sealed. Any jars that do not pass this test should be refrigerated and the chow used within a week or so.
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Store properly sealed chow bottles in cool, dark place and allow to rest for at least 2 weeks to allow flavor to fully develop before opening. Use chow within one year of bottling. Refrigerate chow once jar has been opened.
Recipe Notes
NOTE 1: Coarse pickling salt can be difficult to get fully dissolved in cold water. It may be mixed with warm or hot water and stirred well to dissolve it. Make sure, however, if warm or hot water was used to dissolve the salt that the salt brine has been refrigerated for several hours to ensure it is cold before pouring brine over vegetables.
NOTE 2: While, historically, the lids (with the orange-rust colored gasket on their underside) were preheated in simmering hot water for 1-2 minutes to soften the lid gasket before applying the lids to the hot jars, Bernardin® (the company that manufactures canning lids available in Canada) is now saying that preheating their particular brand of lids is no longer necessary to provide a proper seal as the sealing compound they use in their lid manufacturing performs better at room temperature. They recommend washing the lids in hot soapy water, rinsing them, and setting the lids aside until needed in the canning process.
Note this pertains specifically to the Bernardin® brand of lids. Other manufacturers’ lids may differ so, if you are using another brand of lids, do check the manufacturer’s instructions for lid preparation of their particular brand lids. Typically, if the lids need to be preheated, the method is simply to place the lids in a small pan of simmering hot water over low heat just long enough to heat the rubber piece. This doesn't take longer than a minute or two at most. Do not boil the lids.
[Copyright My Island Bistro Kitchen]