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Spanish Pickles
1 peck green tomatoes, thinly sliced 4 onions, thinly sliced 1 cup salt ½ oz. cloves ½ oz. allspice berries ½ oz. peppercorns ½ cup brown mustard seed 1 lb. brown sugar 4 green peppers, finely chopped Cider vinegar Sprinkle alternate layers of tomatoes and onions with salt, and let stand over night. In the morning drain, and put in a preserving kettle, adding remaining ingredients, using enough vinegar to cover all. Heat gradually to boiling-point and boil one-half hour.
A green-tomato chow-chow in all but name, and one of the simpler things in the canning chapter: salt overnight, then boil in spiced vinegar. Two points need attention before you start — the size of a peck, and the fact that the original never tells you what to do with the pickles once they are cooked.
- A peck of green tomatoesA peck is 8 dry quarts, roughly 12 to 13 lb of tomatoes. That is a full-day quantity; halving everything gives a more manageable batch.
- Spices by weight, not spoonsAn ounce and a half each of cloves, allspice and peppercorns is about 6 to 7 tablespoons apiece — assertive, but correct for this volume of vegetables. Tie them in a double layer of cheesecloth so you can pull them out; whole cloves left loose turn up in the jar and dominate everything.
- The mustard seed measureThe original mixes systems: spices in ounces, then "1½ cup brown mustard seed." Read it as the volume it says. Brown mustard seed is hotter than yellow; yellow will work with a milder result.
- Preserving kettleMeans a wide, heavy, non-reactive pot — stainless steel or enamelled. Bare aluminium, cast iron and copper react with vinegar and will discolour the pickle and pick up a metallic taste.
- Cider vinegar strengthBottled cider vinegar is usually around 5 percent acidity, which is what preserving needs, but check the label as strengths vary. Do not dilute it, and do not substitute an artisanal vinegar of unstated strength.
- The overnight saltThe cup of salt draws water out so the finished pickle is not soupy. Drain thoroughly in the morning and press lightly; a quick rinse cuts the saltiness without undoing the work, though the original does not call for one.
- Half an hour at a boilAim for a gentle rolling boil, stirring often once the sugar is in — the mixture thickens as liquid reduces and will scorch on the bottom if left alone. The tomato slices should be translucent and tender but still holding shape.
- Storage, which the recipe omitsNothing here seals the jars. Either refrigerate the cooled pickles and use them within a couple of months, or pack hot into jars and process in a boiling-water bath following current tested times for pickled vegetables.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield, and a full peck makes a very large batch; have plenty of jars ready. Flavour improves after two or three weeks as the spices settle.
Green-tomato pickle is a thrift recipe: it exists because a frost, or the end of a growing season, leaves a gardener with fruit that will never ripen. Chopped mixed pickles of this kind circulated under a shifting set of names in late nineteenth-century American cookbooks — chow-chow, piccalilli, mixed pickle, and here "Spanish," a label whose origin is not established and which in any case points to no Spanish original. Fannie Farmer's canning and preserving chapter reflects a household in which putting up the garden was ordinary autumn labour, and the sheer quantities — a peck of tomatoes, a pound of sugar, ounces of whole spice — assume a family that expected to eat pickles with cold meat all winter. The heavy hand with cloves and allspice is period taste: sweet-spiced vinegar preserves were the standard foil to the boiled and roasted meats of the era.