Food Ingredients Vegetables Tomato Bread-and-Butter Pickled Green Tomatoes 5.0 (1) Add your rating & review Green tomatoes get the bread-and-butter treatment in these sweet, tangy pickles. By Joe Dietz Published on June 7, 2024 Rate PRINT Share Close Photo: Food & Wine / Photo by Jason Donnelly / Food Styling by Holly Dreesman / Prop Styling by Addelyn Evans Active Time: 45 mins Total Time: 6 hrs Yield: 7 pints These pickled green tomatoes were created when an early freeze was forecast for Lexington, Kentucky, where the recipe creators, Joe Dietz and Tim Brooks, live. Dietz recalls, “In our small garden, the tomato plants were still producing and were loaded with various sizes of green tomatoes. We hated losing the tomatoes but knew we could only eat so many fried green tomatoes. So, we picked all the tomatoes, near ripe and green, the afternoon prior to the freeze.” Dietz and Brooks looked for a recipe to preserve green tomatoes but nothing appealed. They remembered the bread-and-butter pickles they’d put up a few months earlier, and decided to try that recipe with tomatoes. The result is a sweet and tangy pickled green tomato, perfect for snack platters and charcuterie boards. Frequently Asked Questions Are green tomatoes unripe tomatoes? While it’s true that red tomatoes are green until ripe, there are also separate varieties of heirloom green tomatoes that are green when ripe. These include Green Zebra and Green Moldavian. What else can you do with green tomatoes? The unripe, last-of-the season tomatoes still left on the vine are traditionally made into fried green tomatoes, while can be eaten on their own or stacked onto cheeseburgers or BLTs for a welcome topping. Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen These pickles can also be put in the refrigerator instead of canning them. Let the brine come to room temperature in the jars before refrigerating. Make ahead Canned pickles can be held at room temperature for up to 18 months. Be sure the seal still pops when opened. Discard if the seal on the pickles has been broken. Ingredients 4 pounds green tomatoes, quartered or sliced 1/2 cup pickling or kosher salt Ice 4 cups sugar 4 cups white vinegar 2 1/2 tablespoons mustard seed 2 teaspoons celery seed 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 teaspoon ground cloves Directions In a large bowl, toss the green tomatoes and salt. Cover with a layer of crushed or small ice cubes, then cover the mixture with a couple inches of extra ice. Refrigerate for 3 hours. Remove the container from the refrigerator, drain, and thoroughly rinse the tomatoes to remove the salt. In a non-aluminum Dutch oven or similar large pot, combine sugar, vinegar, mustard seed, celery seed, turmeric, and cloves. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then add the green tomatoes. Bring the mixture back to a boil then immediately remove the pot from the heat. Carefully ladle the hot mixture into sterilized pint-sized canning jars. Be sure to leave some headspace before adding the lids and rims. Tighten the rims and place the jars into a water bath canner or large stock pot, making sure that the jars are covered with at least half an inch of water. Bring to a boil and process for 20 minutes. Carefully remove jars from the water and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. For best flavor, let the jars sit for 3 weeks before eating. Rate It Print