Making Chutney from a Glut of Green Tomatoes

A Glut Worth Preserving

By late August, most of us with a few tomato plants outside are facing the same arithmetic. The fruit that set in July is still hard and green, the nights are drawing in, and the first touch of blight is never far away. There is a temptation to leave the green ones on the vine and hope, but the honest smallholder's answer is a pan of chutney.

Green tomato chutney is one of the most forgiving preserves you can make. It does not need a set, it does not mind if your tomatoes are unevenly sized, and it improves with age rather than deteriorating. It uses store-cupboard vinegar and sugar, and it will happily absorb windfall apples, a few hard pears or the last of the onions. Make it now and you will be eating it with sharp Cheddar and cold ham right through next winter.

What You Will Need

This makes roughly five to six 300ml jars, depending on how far you reduce it. Halve or double it as your glut dictates, but keep to a wide, heavy pan — a shallow preserving pan reduces far better than a deep stockpot.

Equipment:

• A large stainless steel or enamelled preserving pan. Avoid aluminium and copper, which react with the vinegar.
• A long wooden spoon, and a jug or heatproof funnel for filling jars.
• Five or six clean jars with vinegar-proof lids — plastic-lined metal or glass stoppers.
• A jam thermometer is optional but useful; a saucer in the freezer is not needed for chutney.

Ingredients:

• 1.5kg green tomatoes, stalks removed and any blighted or damaged fruit discarded
• 500g onions, peeled and roughly chopped
• 250g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 500ml malt vinegar, plus a splash extra if it catches
• 350g light muscovado sugar, or demerara if that is what you have
• 150g sultanas or raisins
• 25g fresh root ginger, peeled and grated, or 2 tsp ground ginger
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp black peppercorns, lightly crushed
• 1 tsp chilli flakes, or to taste
• 2 bay leaves and 6 cloves

Making the Chutney

Chop the tomatoes into rough chunks — about the size of a broad bean. Do not bother peeling them; the skins break down in the long simmer and give the chutney its body. Toss them in a bowl with the salt and leave them for an hour or two. This draws out a good deal of water and means a shorter, better-flavoured reduction later. Drain, discarding the liquid.

Tip the tomatoes, onions and apples into the pan with the vinegar, garlic, ginger, spices, bay and cloves. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn down and simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes, stirring often, until everything has softened and the mixture looks like a thick, rough pulp.

Add the sugar and the dried fruit and stir until the sugar has dissolved completely. Now the long part: simmer gently for another 45 minutes to an hour and a half, stirring every few minutes and scraping the base of the pan. The chutney is ready when a wooden spoon drawn through the middle leaves a clear channel that fills slowly, and a spoonful tipped out mounds rather than runs. Remember it thickens considerably as it cools, so pull it off the heat while it is still slightly looser than you want the finished article to be.

Fish out the bay leaves. Taste carefully — it will be sharp and sweet in equal measure, and a little hot from the chilli. If it is aggressively sour, a further tablespoon of sugar helps; if it is cloying, a splash more vinegar.

Sterilising and Potting Up

Wash your jars in hot soapy water, rinse well, and stand them upside down in a cool oven at 120°C for fifteen minutes. Boil the lids for ten minutes, or follow the manufacturer's instructions if they are the modern self-sealing sort.

Fill the jars while both chutney and jars are hot, leaving about 1cm of headspace. Push the chutney down firmly with a spatula as you go to expel trapped air pockets, then wipe the rims clean with a hot cloth. Seal immediately. As the jars cool, the lids should pull down tight; any that do not can be kept in the fridge and eaten first.

The Hardest Part: Leaving It Alone

Green tomato chutney eaten on the day it is made tastes raw and vinegary. It needs time for the flavours to marry, and the change over six weeks is remarkable. Label each jar with the date and stash them somewhere cool and dark — a cupboard, a shed shelf, the back of the pantry.

Leave it for at least four weeks, ideally two to three months, before opening the first jar. Unopened and properly sealed, it will keep for a year or more. Once opened, keep it in the fridge and use it within a couple of months, always with a clean spoon.

Small Tweaks That Make a Difference

• Cider vinegar in place of half the malt gives a softer, fruitier finish.
• More heat: add a chopped scotch bonnet or a teaspoon of dried chilli with the sugar.
• Warmer spice: a teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, allspice and cumin added at the start rounds it out beautifully.
• Dates instead of sultanas make a darker, treacly chutney that is superb with game.

It is a fine thing to make a store-cupboard staple out of what would otherwise go on the compost heap. A row of labelled jars in November, made from a September glut, is one of the quiet satisfactions of rural living.