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This recipe kicks ass! This is a recipe that belonged to my mom (we always had pickled green tomatoes when I was growing up) that's been spiced up by me. I made these this year and they are INCREDIBLE. By the way, I gave a jar of these to some friends of ours and I don't think they really understood what they were supposed to do with them. My friend said, "Thanks! I should be able to make some good salsa out of these." WTF? SALSA??? Are you kidding me? These are NOT supposed to be used in salsa... these are spicy green tomato pickles. Open the jar, slice 'em up and EAT 'EM (especially good right after dinner)! Pfft... salsa.
10 lbs of green tomatoes (small to medium size)
1 bunch of celery (I used all of it)
6 carrots (peeled)
3 bell peppers (green, red, and orange)
4 jalapeno peppers
1 or 2 habanero peppers
2 cloves garlic per quart jar
About 3 or 4 tsp of pickling spice (more or less to taste) and a few shakes of dill weed per jar
Pull stems and rinse tomatoes thoroughly and dry with towel. Add whole tomatoes to jars, starting with smallest first. Fill up jars as close to top as possible (really cram those suckers in there). Slice up the celery, carrots and peppers into bite-size bits and distribute evenly in quart jars. If you have any tomatoes left over, quarter them and put on top or shove down inside jars as best as possible to fill in any large spaces. Add cloves of garlic, pickling spice and dill weed. Note: I only added the habanero to four of the jars, and six of them had more jalapenos (several slices) than the other six (just two slices each). Don't be afraid to use the jalapenos... they don't make the pickles that hot (just spicier). The habaneros are what really give them some kick, so if you don't like hot/spicy pickles, I'd avoid using them.
Brine (I had to make two batches for all 12 quarts):
2 qts. water
1 qt. white vinegar
1 cup course Kosher salt
2 tbsp dill seed
Boil five minutes, then, while hot, add to quart jars to very top. After filling a dozen quart jars, I had about one pint of brine left over. Cap and seal the jars and put in the basement or a pantry for 6 weeks. Then refrigerate, open, and enjoy!
"Go read a book and flunk a test." -Iggy
