Tomato Pickle

Now is the time to be making tomato pickle to put into attractive jars as Christmas gifts.  This recipe of Mrs Beeton's takes two weeks and three days precisely to be made and, apart from boiling the vinegar with finely chopped onion and spices, requires no cooking.  I reproduce the quaint, old fashioned measures set out by Mrs Beeton, but played fairly fast and loose with the quantities when I made this recipe myself.  I used only five tomatoes, not 24, as I did not have a container large enough for even 24 small tomatoes and hence reduced the quantities of vinegar, onions and spices as well.  The amount of vinegar I used was the amount which covered the tomatoes in their container and the spices were reduced to a tablespoon for the pepper, half tablespoons for the cloves and celery seeds, and a teaspoon of mustard seeds.

Tomato Pickle. - INGREDIENTS. - 24 small and perfectly ripe tomatoes, 1 quart of vinegar, 4 small onions, 1 oz. of pepper, 1/2 oz. of cloves, 1/2 oz. of celery-seed, 2 spoonfuls of mustard-seed, salt. AVERAGE COST, 3 s.

Prick the tomatoes and lay them in an earthen jar with a little salt sprinkled between the layers, and let them stand for 3 days covered, draining away the juice into another covered jar.  Mince the onions, then boil them in the vinegar with the other ingredients.  Wash and dry the tomatoes, put them in a jar, pour over the juice from the other jar and the vinegar and other ingredients when cold, then cover and tie down closely.
TIME. - A fortnight, before the pickle is ready.
SEASONABLE.- Make this in September or October.

Making this recipe in the Australian summer, I put the jar in the fridge, rather than risk producing rotten tomatoes in our heatwave-prone weather.  When decanting the contents of the large jar into smaller jars, I drained off the liquid together with the cloves and most of the celery seeds, to avoid unnecessary crunch and pungency.

Being a collector, I was able to use some of my recycled jars to give the pickle to neighbours and friends as Christmas gifts.  Decorated, of course.  Mrs Beeton would not have it otherwise.