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In the traditions of Russian cuisine, various pickles have played a significant role from time immemorial. Distinguished by their delicious taste, they also have a beneficial effect on the vital activity of the human body. Pickles are not only a source of vitamins in winter, but also accelerate the enzymatic processes during digestion. They are best combined with fatty and meaty dishes, as they make them easier to digest. But the role of salted and pickled vegetables during fasting is also difficult to overestimate.
Salted green tomatoes are the most typical example of Russian pickles. Indeed, it is in Russia, because of its unstable and cold climate, at the end of summer, on the eve of the autumn cold weather, gardeners have to remove green tomatoes from the bushes in large quantities and think about what to do with them next. Well, salting green tomatoes for the winter allows you to save almost any amount of tomatoes at no special cost, especially if you live in a house with a cellar, where you can easily store any amount of winter harvesting.
Naturally, many novice gardeners have a natural question about how to salt green tomatoes for the winter? It is to this question that a detailed answer will be given in the course of the article, and several recipes for making salted tomatoes will be given. After all, this process itself can be called creative, because, skillfully selecting various spices and spices for pickling green tomatoes, you can significantly modify the taste of the finished dish. Well, in winter, you can put on the table both a salad with salted tomatoes, and serve them as a separate excellent snack, especially if you season them with oil and fresh herbs.
Recipe "At the origins of salting"
Perhaps, according to this recipe, green tomatoes were also salted by your great-great-relatives. And even then they knew and took into account many subtleties that can affect the taste and quality of green tomato preparations.
Secrets of delicious tomatoes
Although in those distant times they preferred to use exclusively wooden dishes for pickling tomatoes: a variety of barrels and tubs, in the modern world glassware is more popular. Since it is easier to clean, wash and sterilize. If you are thinking about how to pickle green tomatoes in large quantities, enamel buckets and even large 20-30 liter pots can be used for salting.
Well, if you manage to get a real oak tub for pickling green tomatoes, or at least a small barrel, then the taste of the finished tomatoes will be, as they say, "lick your fingers."
True, the degree of maturity, and the size of the green tomatoes themselves, still matters. Tomatoes that are very small and dark green are most likely not suitable for pickling. The content of solanine is still too high in them - a substance that is toxic to humans, but is destroyed under the influence of hot water and saline solution. Experience shows that delicious salted tomatoes are obtained from light green, almost white or even brownish tomatoes.
Various spices play an important role in obtaining the unique taste of salted tomatoes. They largely determine the quality of the finished dish. For example, herbs such as black currant, cherry, oak and horseradish leaves will increase the shelf life of pickles and make them crispy.Basil, parsley, dill, tarragon and savory give the aroma of green tomato dishes peculiar spicy notes, mustard seeds, garlic, pepper and horseradish roots improve the taste, and celery, black pepper, coriander and the same basil have a beneficial effect on digestion.
Finally, there are some factors that are unusual for the rational mind, which, nevertheless, have long been taken into account when preparing pickles. It has long been noticed that pickles made on a full moon are not very tasty and spoil quite quickly. For example, vegetables become soft and rather tasteless.
Cold salting process
The recipe for pickling green tomatoes itself is simple and difficulties may arise only with finding some spices and seasonings. However, you can always use whatever is on hand to start with, and then add rarer herbs if possible.
For an average of 10 kg of green tomatoes, you will need to cook:
- Several dozen cherry and black currant leaves;
- 5-6 leaves of laurel and oak;
- 200 g of inflorescences and dill herbs;
- Several varieties of spicy herbs, 100 grams each (parsley, celery, basil, tarragon, marjoram, savory);
- Several horseradish leaves;
- If desired, horseradish root, cut into small pieces, a few hot pepper pods, a few tablespoons of mustard seeds and a few heads of garlic;
- 10 allspice and black peppercorns each.
For pickling green tomatoes in the first way, only the tomatoes themselves, spices and salt are needed, which are poured into the container with peeled and washed tomatoes with herbs in the process of dense packing. At the same time, the consumption of salt per 10 kg of green tomatoes is approximately 1.1-1.2 kg.
The easiest way is to salt tomatoes in this way. On top, it is enough to put oppression in the form of a stone or a jar filled with water. If after a few days the juice that comes out of the fruits is not enough to completely cover all the tomatoes, then the required amount of 7% brine must be added to the top of the container (that is, 70 g of salt should be used per 1 liter of water). In the room, such tomatoes should be no more than three days, after which they need to be moved to a cool and dark place. The taste of salted tomatoes cooked in their own juice without pouring, of course, cannot be compared with pickled ones, and in terms of usefulness, such a product surpasses the preparations in which vinegar is used.
For salting green tomatoes using cold pouring, first prepare a brine with a strength of at least 7%.
Green tomatoes tightly packed in a suitable container, arranged with spices on all sides, pour cold brine and leave in the kitchen for 5-6 days. Further, the workpiece must also be moved to a cool place.
Tomatoes harvested in any of these ways can be tasted in 2-3 weeks, but they will acquire a full bouquet of taste and aroma in 5-6 weeks.
Tomatoes "Lick your fingers"
In an urban setting, the easiest way to cook salty green tomatoes is a recipe with the tempting name "Lick your fingers." Indeed, according to this recipe, tomatoes are cooked immediately in glass jars, so they take up little space and can be stored in a regular refrigerator. In addition, granulated sugar and mustard powder are added to the spices, which makes green tomatoes very tasty.
Despite the delicious name, the recipe is very simple and you need to find for it:
- 2 kg of green tomatoes;
- 4 pieces of currant leaves and 6 pieces of cherry leaves;
- 80 grams of dill;
- A couple of oak leaves and horseradish;
- A tablespoon of coriander seeds;
- 50 grams of garlic;
- 6 peas of black pepper;
- 2 carnations;
- 2 liters of water;
- 40 grams of salt and sugar;
- 10 grams of mustard powder.
All spices and herbs with vegetables must be washed well and dried a little. In a clean jar, cover the bottom completely with leaves of spicy plants, add half a serving of garlic, coriander and pepper.
Then stack the green tomatoes tightly to the middle of the jar, add another layer of spices, again the tomatoes and top with all the remaining spices and herbs. According to the recipe for making brine, add salt and sugar to the water, boil and when the brine cools a little, add mustard powder to it.
Pour the cooled, strained brine into the jars with the stacked tomatoes so that they are completely covered with it. Place a lid or weighted plate on top. After 3-4 days of salting, you can send it to the refrigerator.
Winter blanks according to this recipe can even be stored in normal room conditions, if you pour the tomatoes with hot brine, let them stand for 15 minutes, drain the brine, boil it again, and pour it over again. It is enough to repeat this procedure 3 times, after which the cans can be simply rolled up.
Having tried to salt even a small amount of green tomatoes once for the winter, you will see that they disappear faster than all the other pickles cooked for the winter. And, perhaps, next year you will be ready in advance for large volumes of blanks.
