Skunks and Green Tomato Mincemeat
Don’t worry, I haven’t just invented the world’s worst holiday pie.
At about 2:00 this morning, I was awakened by the sound of something squealing and squawking for dear life under my bedroom window, and then the burning stench of hell itself filled the house. I don’t know who was on the receiving end of that nasty blast, but thankfully it wasn’t any of our animals. I was worried that the skunk was hit by a car and hid in our crawl space to die, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The ungodly smell is still lingering in the house, though.
Lu recently asked if I would share my mom’s recipe for mincemeat, so I thought I’d post it here in case there’s anyone else out there with a pile of unripe tomatoes.
Green Tomato Mincemeat:
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- 2 quarts chopped green tomatoes
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- 1 quart chopped apples (peeled)
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- 1/4 pound of butter (1/2 cup); regular or non-dairy
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- 6 1/2 cups brown sugar
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- 1 pound of raisins
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- 1/2 cup mixed peel
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- 1 cup white vinegar
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- 1/2 teaspoon salt
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- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
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- 2 teaspoons ground cloves
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2 teaspoons ground nutmeg (use about half that if grating fresh)
Combine everything in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Bring to a boil and simmer gently over low heat until thickened (about an hour). Stir often.
If canning, ladle into sterile jars and process. The recipe says that you should end up with 3 quarts, but I only got 2.
Enjoy!
Thanks for posting the recipe! Hope your skunk smell has subsided a bit by now….
No problem, I hope you like it!
Cheryl, I wonder if you know about fresh bay leaf plants. I have an absolutely lovely plant in my garden that I wonder if I can bring inside over the winter — rather than drying the bay leaves. I love the fresh bay flavor. Do you know – and thanks.
Lu – I don’t have one, but from what I’ve read it’s a good idea to grow them in a pot for that very reason, then you can move them indoors when it gets too cold.
I may have to get one myself, my bay leaves are never fresh enough.
Too bad about the skunk. The smell can be pretty overwhelming if it’s close enough. My parents had two racoons the other night who climbed the latter onto their roof and were curiously peering in window. Good thing the window was latched, because I’m sure they would have tried to come in if they could have.
That’s too funny, I bet it gave them a bit of a start to see eyes peering in at them!