Foods of England - Green Tomato Chutney

Green Tomato Chutney

Preserves

There is no definitive receipt but many include apples and dried dark fruit as well as the green tomatoes, vinegar, ginger and pepper. Now among the most popular of home-made chutneys.

While generally assumed to be of Indian origin it doesn't seem to be found in any of the early Anglo-Indian cookbooks, but does start to turn up in North America at the end of the 19th century. Indeed, in the Bombay-Published 'The Mem Sahibs' Book of Cookery' of 1894 it is distinctly described as Canadian Green Tomato Chutney.

Original Receipt from Marrion Harris's Canning, Preserving and Pickling, Philadelphia, 1914

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY

4 lbs. green tomatoes
1/2 teaspoonful paprika
1/2 lb. onions
2 lbs. (4 cups)brown sugar
2 lbs. seeded raisins
1 teaspoonful salt
1/4 lb. ground ginger
1 pint (2 cups) tarragon vinegar
3 chillies
2 pints (4 cups) vinegar

Put through a food chopper the tomatoes, onions, raisins and chillies, and add the spices, sugar, salt and vinegars. Keep in a warm place; stir each day for a week, then cook until tender. Seal in bottles.

Another Method:
Slice ten pounds of green tomatoes, sprinkle each layer with salt, and let remain over night. Put two quarts of vinegar into a preserving pan, add two pounds of sugar, one pound of chopped shallots, one and one-half teaspoonful of paprika, twelve cloves, one crushed cinnamon stick and thirty peppercorns tied in a muslin bag. Drain the tomatoes, add them to the vinegar and simmer until thick and tender. Bottle when cold.

Original Receipt from 'Pot-luck; or, The British home cookery book' by May Byron (Byron 1914)

412. TOMATO CHUTNEY (Sussex)

Ingredients. — Three and a half pounds of green tomatoes, one teaspoonful of mustard-seed, one teaspoonful of ground ginger, one teaspoonful of allspice, one onion, one quart of vinegar, ten cloves, and a pound of brown sugar.

Method. — Peel and cut the tomatoes, put into the preserving pan with vinegar and spices. When nearly boihng, add sugar, and the onion whole. Boil gently for about two hours. Remove the onion before it breaks. Put into small pots and tie down. If ripe tomatoes are used, less vinegar is required.

See: Chutneys

Image: The Khaki Kook Book, 1917

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