"If all the harmonies of a garden come together in soup, then the orchard, garden and grove come into serene accord in mincemeat pie.” —Grace Firth, Stillroom Cookery
Green Tomato Mincemeat Pie has become a bit of a family tradition. It tastes like Christmas and we look forward to it all year. In honor of a chilly fall-ish sort of day at my house I am sharing it here for you. I adapted this recipe so that everything will (just barely) fit in a slow cooker. And as you can see it does not call for meat at all.
“Your whole neighborhood will smell the fragrance of your kettle and come knocking at your door. Mincemeat is a salute to the triumph of nature and to man’s ingenuity in bringing it all together in pie.” —Grace Firth, Stillroom Cookery
GREEN TOMATO MINCEMEAT PIE FILLING:
Wash, core, and chop 8 cups (about 10) green tomatoes. Mix in 1 Tablespoon of salt. Let stand 1 hour. Drain and cover with hot water. Drain again and squeeze out liquid.
Core and finely chop apples to make 8 cups. (around 6 apples)
Finely chop pears to make 2 cups (around 4 pears)
Finely chop 2 oranges. Remove the seeds, but keep the rind.
Add everything to your slow cooker along with the following:
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
4 cups brown sugar
1 pound raisins
1/2 Tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1.5 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
Cover with the lid and cook on low all night. In the morning, stir and leave the lid off so that it can cook down. This could take all morning or most of the day.
Set aside some filling to make pies now and save the rest in the freezer for later. 1 quart of filling = 1 pie. Use your favorite double pie crust recipe.
Wow I wish I had read this three months ago. Let's just say the green tomato pie I did make was... not good.