Grandma Alice's Tomato Relish
This recipe came from the cookbook of my Grandma Alice (1894-1967). Sadly I never met her but my parents have always kept her memory alive and Dad has often reminisced about his mum making this relish. My Mum has made it almost annually with her fresh home grown tomatoes - its SO good!! We all love it - with meat on sandwiches, on mashed potatoes, on its own with bread and butter and even on toast for breakfast, especially with a fried egg - yum. The recipe makes 7 x 600ml bottles.
This recipe came from the cookbook of my Grandma Alice (1894-1967). Sadly I never met her but my parents have always kept her memory alive and Dad has often reminisced about his mum making this relish. My Mum has made it almost annually with her fresh home grown tomatoes - its SO good!! We all love it - with meat on sandwiches, on mashed potatoes, on its own with bread and butter and even on toast for breakfast, especially with a fried egg - yum. The recipe makes 7 x 600ml bottles.
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 cup salt
- 2.75 kg green (and/or red) tomatoes (our preference is all red)
- 910 g onions
- 2 liters water (approximate)
- vinegar
- 910 g sugar
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 6 teaspoons dry mustard
- 3 tablespoons cornflour (may need up to 6 tbsp)
- 1 teaspoon mace
- Carbohydrate 168.880443105327 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 1.91265192321842 g
- Fiber 7.19327130627011 g
- Protein 7.73534219798421 g
- Saturated Fat 0.289160818707208 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Jar (950g)
- Sodium 66.4442472534885 mg
- Sugar 161.687171799057 g
- Trans Fat 1.04669692310797 g
- Calories 715 calories
Step-by-step
- Tomatoes may be skinned if desired but it is not necessary. To skin tomatoes, prick the skin a little with a sharp knife and immerse them in boiling water for 15 seconds. Once you've taken them out, you can slide the skin off the tomatoes.
- Chop tomatoes and slice onions. Cover with water and salt then leave them overnight.
- Pour the brine off the tomatoes then almost cover them with vinegar. Bring to boil and add sugar, stir well.
- Mix curry powder, mustard and cornflour in a cup with some cold vinegar and stir into the simmering tomatoes. Continue stirring until mixture thickens. (If you find its not thick enough add more cornflour but take care to blend well with more vinegar and stir in quickly to prevent lumps forming)
- Simmer for around 30 - 60 minutes.
- Add in the remaining ingredients and stir well.
- Carefully pour into hot sterilised jars and seal. (I like to process them in a Fowlers Vacola unit as per unit instructions as well.)
Swapping red tomatoes for entirely green ones introduces significantly more pectin and less natural sugar, yielding a firmer, tangier preserve that behaves differently during the reduction stage. Understanding textural physics dictates every phase of this preparation. Salting chopped tomatoes and onions overnight draws out excess intracellular water through osmosis, preventing a watery final condiment that slides off a sandwich. Discarding that initial brine eliminates surface moisture that would otherwise dilute the vinegar concentration required for preservation.
Achieving the Ideal Viscosity
Cornflour acts as the primary stabilizing agent, but starches gelatinize incorrectly if exposed directly to boiling liquid. Whisking the dry mustard, curry powder, and cornflour into cold vinegar first creates a lump-free slurry before it encounters the simmering pot. Simmering the mixture between 30 and 60 minutes drives off residual water while concentrating the sugars. Stir constantly during this phase because high sugar content scorches easily at the bottom of the vessel.
- Watery results stem from skipping the overnight salt drain or failing to boil off sufficient liquid.
- Lumps form when dry starches hit hot liquid without a cold vinegar slurry suspension.
- Thin consistency requires an additional slurry of cornflour mixed thoroughly with cold vinegar before stirring rapidly into the pot.
