Hot Pickled Green Tomatoes

Ingredients:
8 small, green tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons pickling salt
1 habenaro, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon dill seed
6 peppercorns
1 small shallot, minced


Directions:
Evenly divide the tomatoes, pepper, spices and shallot between 2 wide mouth pint jars. Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil. Prep the lids/jars. Pour in the boiling vinegar mixture, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Poke down any tomatoes that has floated too close to the top. Close the jars and process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath. Allow to sit at least one week before eating.

Yield: 2 wide mouth pints

Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Here is a bunch of other canning books and equipment I find useful.

My thoughts:

Just before the first frost was threatened, I picked all the green tomatoes I still had on the vine. In the past I've tried the old "ripen in a paper bag" trick but it didn't always work. Since I've become obsessed with canning, I thought I might try my hand at canning some pickled tomatoes. I'm honestly not sure if pickled tomatoes is a "thing" but I was already firing up my canning pot to make some jam so I figured making a couple of jars wouldn't hurt. I popped in a (really hot!) pepper some friends grew in their garden and a few of my favorite pickling spices and you know what? It totally turned out. The tomatoes stayed firm and had a great hot-pickle flavor. Easy-peasy. Added bonus: I felt great that I was able to eke out a tiny bit more from my garden.