Green Tomato Pickle recipe

This is the recipe my granny used to use, then my mum, and now my uncle and I are also using it. It works very well, although it is possible to modify it slightly to your own preferences.

The basic recipe calls for:

3lb green tomatoes

1lb cooking apples

1/2 lb onions

1 pint of vinegar

1/2 sugar

1 tsp salt

12 oz chopped dates

Chop the tomatoes and apples (peeled and cored) finely and bring to the boil in half the vinegar. Then add the rest of the vinegar and the remaining ingredients, and boil for an hour, simmering gently and stirring frequently. The instructions ask you to sterilise the jam jars and then bottle the pickle once it has cooled, but I find that putting it in the jars when it is hot means that it pulls the seals down on the jars more effectively.

When I made this last weekend, I had no dates in the house, so I just increased the sugar and apples to make up the weight, and it has worked fine. UJ reports that he likes it without the dates just as well. I have bought dates this week, though, so I intend to make another batch to include them so that we can do a taste test! I have to find/acquire/beg some more jars from somewhere though...

I am off now to make some beetroot pickle so I will post the recipe for that if it works. The beetroot chutney I made last week was from the Sainsbury's magazine, so it might be on their website...goes off to look...no, can't find a link and now can't lay hands on the magazine either!! Will let you know if I come across it later!