I happen to have an abundance of green tomatoes and while I plan on making some green tomato salsa and letting others ripen inside, I was looking for something a little unusual to do with a few. I did a little searching which led me to this recipe for green tomato jam. Her recipe, however; required cooking the jam down for almost two hours until it set. I’m too lazy for that so I decided to modify her recipe a bit by adding some slightly under-ripe apples to my jam for their natural pectin, hoping it would thicken the jam up without hours of cooking time. It did and I must say as unusual as this jam sounds it is quite wonderful. I’ll be making more.
Gingerly Green Tomato & Vanilla Apple Jam
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8 Cups of chopped green tomatoes
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2 Cups of peeled & cored chopped apples
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1/4 Cup lemon juice
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2 teaspoons ground ginger
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2 1/2 Cups Sugar
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1 Vanilla Bean
Place everything into a nonreactive pot, scraping the insides of the vanilla bean (all those little black spots) into the pan, but not the pod itself. Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat and continue to boil until it thickens. Stir occasionally and even mash up the bits of apple and tomato with a potato masher. It took about 30 minutes for this jam to set for me. It may take more or less time for you depending on the pectin quality of your apples.
Pour into sterilized jars and process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes or store in a refrigerator.
This made 3 and a half pints for me.
Disclaimer: This is not a tested & “approved” canning recipe. I’m going to eat it but if you choose to follow this recipe you do so at your own risk. My years of canning experience lead me to believe that the acidity and sugar in this recipe are sufficient to keep it safe for boiling water bath processing. If you are worried, you don’t have to can it, you could just store it in the refrigerator with no fears.
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Do you have a recipe for green tomato salsa you’d be willing to share? We still have a lot of green tomatoes and with all the rain we’ve had, I’m worried they’ll just rot on the vine.
That sounds delicious. Almost makes me hope for more green tomatoes. Almost…
i’m making this right now. and and apple pie! thanks for the recipe, it seems so odd but delicious. happy first day of fall!
Interesting~ I got given a ton of fruit last week from a friend and decided to make juice out of it all – found some great juice recipe here if you’re interested
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