Vegetable by vegetable
Green tomatoes, three published recipes and one trap
The vegetable with the most published variants here, and the one where the strongest brine of all belongs to a recipe that is not a fermentation.
On this page
On this page
- Three recipes, three different pickles
- Pickled Sweet Green Tomatoes, a dry salt that is rinsed away
- Kosher Style Dill, the saltiest solution in the entire vegetable corpus
- Why the kosher style entry is a reading trap
- Spiced Green Tomatoes, sugar and vinegar with no water at all
- What separates the three on the shelf
Green tomatoes hold the largest number of published variants in this manual, and they also hold its most misleading entry. Three recipes are published, all from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, and none of them is a fermentation. The one that looks most like a ferment, because it carries a brine, is in fact the farthest from it.
Three recipes, three different pickles
The first is Pickled Sweet Green Tomatoes, Guide 6 page 6-24, USDA revised 2015, no other date displayed. It makes about 9 pints of a cooked sweet pickle. The second is Kosher Style Dill Green Tomato Pickles, adapted from "So Easy to Preserve", 6th ed. 2014, Bulletin 989, Cooperative Extension Service, The University of Georgia, Athens. It makes about 6 quart jars of whole raw tomatoes in a boiled brine. The third is Spiced Green Tomatoes, from the same "So Easy to Preserve", 6th ed. 2014, about 4 pint jars of small whole tomatoes in a spiced sugar-and-vinegar syrup. The three differ in form, in sweetness, and above all in how the liquid reaches the jar.
Pickled Sweet Green Tomatoes, a dry salt that is rinsed away
This recipe uses 10 to 11 lbs of green tomatoes, given as 16 cups sliced, with 2 cups sliced onions, 1/4 cup of canning or pickling salt, 3 cups of brown sugar, 4 cups of 5% vinegar, and 1 tbsp each of mustard seed, allspice, celery seed and whole cloves. The salt here is not a brine salt. The instruction reads: "Place in bowl, sprinkle with 1/4 cup salt, and let stand 4 to 6 hours. Drain." The salt works on texture and is then discarded with the drained liquid, so the finished pickle is not built on a salt solution at all.
The vegetables are then simmered with the sugar, vinegar and spices. The published instruction is explicit about doneness: "Bring to boil and simmer 30 minutes, stirring as needed to prevent burning. Tomatoes should be tender and transparent when properly cooked." Headspace is 1/2 inch, and the processing is hot pack: pints 10, 15 or 20 minutes, quarts 15, 20 or 25 minutes.
Kosher Style Dill, the saltiest solution in the entire vegetable corpus
This recipe calls for small firm green tomatoes, about 5 to 6 lbs of 1-inch tomatoes, roughly 5 quarts in volume, packed whole and raw. Each quart jar receives 1 clove of garlic, 1 stalk of celery and 4 quarters of green pepper. The liquid combines 2 quarts of water, 1 quart of 5% distilled white vinegar, and 1 cup of canning or pickling salt, with fresh dill to taste. The vinegar-to-water ratio is 1:2, and 1 cup of salt to 3 quarts of liquid makes this by far the saltiest solution and the least acidic in the whole vegetable corpus published here.
The preparation leaves no ambiguity: "Combine water, vinegar and salt. Boil with the dill for 5 minutes." Headspace is 1/2 inch, and the processing is raw pack, quarts only, 15, 20 or 25 minutes. The published aging note states: "These will be ready for use in 4 to 6 weeks." The source also warns on yield: "Since these tomatoes are placed in the jars whole and raw, the specific number or weight needed will vary some by the size and shapes of the tomatoes and depend on how they fit into your jars."
A strong brine does not make a ferment
The Kosher Style Dill recipe carries the heaviest salt of the corpus, yet it is a boiled, canned pickle, not a fermentation. Salt concentration and lactic fermentation are two different things, and this recipe has only the first.
Why the kosher style entry is a reading trap
A brine of 1 cup salt in 3 quarts of liquid looks, at a glance, like the brines used for fermented dill pickles. The difference is what happens next: here the brine is boiled for 5 minutes and the jars are processed in a canner. Fermented vegetables cure in their brine at room temperature for weeks, and the published end-of-process check is the sour taste; here nothing ferments at any stage. No stage of this recipe involves a fermentation, and the salt plays no fermenting role. Treating this entry as a fermented recipe would be the central error this vegetable invites.
Spiced Green Tomatoes, sugar and vinegar with no water at all
The third recipe uses 6 lbs of small whole green tomatoes, 9 cups of sugar, 1 pint of 5% cider vinegar, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 tbsp whole cloves, 1 tbsp allspice, and 1 tbsp whole mace or 1/2 tbsp ground. No water is added at any point. The source specifies the raw material: "Small green fig or plum tomatoes are suitable for this pickle. Wash, scald and peel. Make a syrup of the sugar, vinegar and spices. Drop in the whole tomatoes and boil until they become clear." Headspace is 1/2 inch, hot pack, pints only, 15, 20 or 25 minutes.
| Recipe | Liquid base | Salt | Pack | Headspace | Processing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pickled Sweet Green | 4 cups 5% vinegar, 3 cups brown sugar | 1/4 cup, dry-salted then drained | Hot | 1/2 inch | Pints 10/15/20 min, quarts 15/20/25 min |
| Kosher Style Dill | 2 quarts water, 1 quart 5% vinegar | 1 cup in the brine | Raw | 1/2 inch | Quarts 15/20/25 min |
| Spiced Green | 1 pint 5% cider vinegar, 9 cups sugar, no water | None | Hot | 1/2 inch | Pints 15/20/25 min |
What separates the three on the shelf
- Salt appears in one recipe as a texture agent that is drained away, in one as a full brine component, and in one not at all.
- Only one recipe, the kosher style, packs its tomatoes raw; the other two cook the product before it enters the jar.
- All three share the same 1/2 inch headspace, published by the same source, the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
This page does not publish a fermented green tomato recipe, because none is found in the material. It also does not give a safe salt range for fermenting green tomatoes on your own, nor any temperature or duration for such a ferment: those numbers are not published here, and the question belongs to a different page. What this page does give is the full weight, headspace and processing detail of the three published vinegar pickles, and the warning that the saltiest of them is still not a fermentation.
Sources of the figures on this page
- National Center for Home Food Preservation, University of Georgia, Pickled Sweet Green Tomatoes, Kosher Style Dill Green Tomato Pickles, and Spiced Green Tomatoes, USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, guide 6, revised 2015. Three separate published treatments of the same vegetable, and the strongest salt brine in this whole corpus.
- United States Department of Agriculture, Complete Guide to Home Canning, Agriculture Information Bulletin 539, guide 6, Preparing and Canning Fermented and Pickled Foods, revised 2015. The canon these extension leaflets adapt, and by its silences, the vegetables for which nothing is published.
- National Center for Home Food Preservation, University of Georgia, General Information on Pickling, adapted from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, revised 2015, reviewed February 2018. The four classes of pickled product, the 5 percent vinegar requirement, and the prohibition on altering proportions.