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India Relish (Two quarts of green tomatoes)
Two quarts of green tomatoes, four quarts of cabbage, six onions, three peppers; chop, and add one-half pound of sugar, two tablespoons of salt, two tablespoons of celery seed, three pints of vinegar, one tablespoon of tumeric. Boil twenty minutes.
— Mrs. Frank Van Allen
A straightforward boiled chopped pickle of the kind that used up the last of the unripened tomatoes. The measurements are all workable; what the original leaves out is what to do with the finished relish.
- Volumes to weightsTwo quarts of chopped green tomatoes is roughly 3 lb; four quarts of chopped cabbage is one large head, about 3 lb trimmed. Half a pound of sugar is a generous cup; three pints of vinegar is 6 cups.
- "Three peppers"Unspecified, and in a receipt of this kind most likely sweet green peppers rather than chilies. Use three bell peppers for a mild relish; add one hot pepper only if you want heat.
- TumericA common variant spelling of turmeric. One tablespoon of ground turmeric is there for the yellow colour as much as the flavour, and it will stain wooden spoons and plastic bowls.
- Chop, not pureeA food processor will reduce these vegetables to slush in seconds. Pulse in short bursts, or chop by hand, to keep the coarse texture that makes it a relish.
- Salting step is absentMany relishes of this family salt the chopped vegetables for several hours and drain them before cooking. Here the salt goes straight into the pot, so expect a wetter result; a longer simmer will reduce it if you want it thicker.
- Twenty minutes is rightCabbage and green tomatoes hold their bite well, and 20 minutes at a steady boil softens them without collapse. Stir often near the end, since the sugar catches on the bottom.
- Vinegar strengthModern cider or white vinegar at 5 percent acidity is what to use. Do not dilute it or substitute a low-acid vinegar, since the acid is doing the preserving work.
- Yield and storageThis makes a large batch, several quarts. The receipt gives no sealing instructions at all: refrigerate and use within a few weeks, or follow a current tested boiling-water-bath process if you want it shelf stable.
Relishes of chopped green tomato, cabbage and onion under a sweet-and-sour turmeric brine were everywhere in American community cookbooks between about 1880 and 1930, appearing under names like chow chow, piccalilli and, as here, India relish. The "India" tag is often said to have been a nineteenth-century shorthand for anything yellow with turmeric and warm with spice, borrowed from the British enthusiasm for mango chutneys and curry powders rather than from any particular Indian dish. Its practical purpose was frugal: green tomatoes are what the vines still hold when frost is coming, and cabbage and onions are what the cellar has in quantity. That the receipt carries Mrs. Frank Van Allen's name is typical of the genre, where each contributor's household version was credited and the reader was assumed already to know how to fill and seal a jar.