This is based on a recipe from an old Good Housekeeping book of my mum’s. We made it over 10 years ago and it was such a big hit with our rat-catcher Mick, he kept coming back to dispatch more rodents – and take more jars of pickle.
- 4 small pieces of root ginger tied up in a muslin bag
- 1lb (250g) cooking apples – peeled, cored & minced
- 4 medium onions, minced
- 3lb (750g) green tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 8oz (225g) sultanas
- 8oz (225g) demerara sugar
- 2 level tsp salt
- 3/4 pint (400ml) malt vinegar (Sainsbury’s basics malt vinegar is 13p a pint)
- half tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp mustard powder
I blitzed the apple, onion & ginger in the food processor. I know it says put them in a muslin bag, but I wanted to give this some poke. I may have also been over-generous with the cayenne pepper.
Chuck everything in a huge pan. Boil, then simmer & reduce, stirring occasionally, for about 2 hours. Bottle in steralized jars when still piping hot.
I’ll let you know how this batch turns out in a month or so – pan-scrapings suggested this is fearsomely spicy but delicious.
