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Kentucky Pickle
Take green tomatoes, cabbage, and onions, about equal quantities-grind them in a sausage machine. Salt, and put the mixture in a bag, and let it hang all night or until the juice has run from it-then season with red and black pepper, mustard-seed. celery-seed, cloves, sugar.
Pack in jars, and cover with strong cold vinegar.--Mrs. M. D.
A chow-chow-style green tomato relish with no quantities given for salt, spice, or vinegar. The salting and draining step is the whole recipe: get the water out and the pickle keeps its bite, skip it and you get a watery jar.
- Working quantitiesEqual parts by weight works well: 2 lb each green tomatoes, cabbage, and onions. Expect somewhere in the region of 3 to 4 pints of finished relish, depending on how much liquid drains off. Halve it the first time so you can adjust the seasoning to taste.
- "Grind them in a sausage machine"A meat grinder with the coarse plate, or a food processor pulsed in short bursts. Do not run the processor continuously; the cabbage and tomatoes turn to slush and there is nothing left to drain.
- How much saltThe original leaves it open. About 3 tablespoons of coarse salt per 4 lb of vegetables draws out the liquid without making the finished pickle inedible. Toss, let stand 20 minutes, then bag.
- The bagA double layer of cheesecloth or a clean muslin flour sack, tied and hung over a bowl in a cool place overnight. A colander lined with cloth and set over a bowl in the refrigerator does the same job. A weight on top helps; press out what remains in the morning.
- Seasoning, in proportionFor 4 lb of drained vegetables, start with 2 tablespoons yellow mustard seed, 1 tablespoon celery seed, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 to 2 teaspoons black pepper, cayenne to taste, and 1/2 to 1 cup sugar. Cloves dominate quickly, so err low.
- "Strong cold vinegar"Best read as full-strength, undiluted vinegar rather than vinegar cut with water; any supermarket cider or distilled white vinegar now supplies at least 5 percent acidity. Household vinegar of the period varied in strength, which may be what lies behind the word strong.
- StorageThis is an uncooked, unprocessed pack. Treat it as a refrigerator pickle: cover the vegetables completely with vinegar, cap, and keep cold, using it within a couple of months. Do not seal it and store it in a cupboard as shelf-stable canning; for that, use a current tested recipe with a measured processing time.
- Give it timeThe flavor is harsh on day one. A week to two weeks in the cold lets the mustard and celery seed come forward. Serve with beans, pork, or cold meat.
Green tomato relishes of this type belong to the broad family of American chow-chows, the late-season pickles made when frost threatened and the tomato vines were still full of fruit that would never ripen. Cabbage, onion, and unripe tomatoes were what a kitchen garden had left in the autumn, and the strong vinegar and mustard seed carried them through the winter as a relish for salt pork, beans, and cold meat. The instruction to grind rather than chop fine points to a household with a hand-cranked meat grinder, a machine that became common in American kitchens in the later nineteenth century. Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree and published in 1878, was assembled from contributions by named and initialed Southern housewives, which is why this one arrives credited only to Mrs. M. D. and with no quantities at all.