Recipe: Pickled Sweet Green Tomatoes

PICKLED SWEET GREEN TOMATOES
Yield: About 9 pints

10 to 11 lb. of green tomatoes (l6 cups sliced)
2 cups sliced onions
l/4 cup canning or pickling salt
4 cups vinegar (5% acidity)
3 cups brown sugar
l tbsp. mustard seed
l tbsp. allspice
l tbsp. celery seed
l tbsp. whole cloves

Wash and slice tomatoes and onions. Place in bowl, sprinkle with l/4 cup salt, and let stand 4 to 6 hours.

Drain. Heat and stir sugar in vinegar until dissolved.

Tie mustard seed, allspice, celery seed and cloves in a spice bag. Add to vinegar with tomatoes and onions. If needed, add minimum water to cover pieces. Bring to boil and simmer 30 minutes, stirring as needed to prevent burning. Tomatoes should be tender and transparent when properly cooked.

Remove spice bag. Fill hot jars with mixture and cover with hot pickling solution, leaving 1/2- inch headspace. Adjust lids and process. Process pints 10 minutes, quarts 15 minutes.