Fermented Green Tomatoes
Fermenting wants green or half-ripe tomatoes — red ones collapse into mush within days. Green ones hold their shape for weeks and end up firm, salty-sour, with skins that still snap. The brine is the same one the cucumbers get, because it is the salt concentration that decides who moves into the jar. Start tasting on day fourteen and keep going until it is sour enough for you.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Rest
- 336 h
- Total
- 336 h 25 min
- Servings
- 10
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 30 kcal
Ingredients
Makes: One 3 l jar
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Choose the tomatoes
Take green or half-ripe ones, firm to the touch, with no cracks or spots. Quarter them — whole tomatoes take twice as long and often stay bland inside.
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Step 2: Dissolve the salt
Warm part of the water, dissolve the salt in it down to the last grain, then top up with the rest cold. The brine must be at room temperature: hot brine kills the bacteria we are counting on.
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Step 3: Pack the jar
Put the dill, horseradish, garlic and peppers in the bottom of a 3 l jar. Pack the tomatoes cut side up, closely but without crushing them.
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Step 4: Cover and weigh down
Pour in the brine until the tomatoes have disappeared under it, leaving 5 cm of headroom. Weigh them down — anything above the brine will grow mould.
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Step 5: Ferment for two weeks
Leave at 21–24 °C under muslin. The brine clouds and foams in the first days, which is exactly right. Skim the foam every two or three days.
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Step 6: Taste from day 14
On day fourteen taste a piece. If it is not sour enough, give it another week and taste again — they can ferment for up to six weeks, until the flavour is where you want it.
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Step 7: Move to the cold
Once you like the taste, close the jar and refrigerate. Fermentation all but stops there and the tomatoes keep at least six months.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Ripe red tomatoes are not for this: a week and they are mush. If you want red, use small cherry tomatoes and cut the ferment to five days.
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Variation
The classic touch: slip a sliver of garlic and a strip of hot pepper into each quarter before packing the jar.
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Tip
A white film on the surface is kahm yeast — skim it off and carry on. Fuzzy, coloured mould means the jar is not worth saving.
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Storage
Six months in the fridge, growing sourer as they go. Keep the brine — it makes an excellent rassolnyk soup.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 10 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 30 kcal | 300 kcal |
| Protein | 1 g | 10 g |
| Fat | 0 g | 0 g |
| Carbohydrates | 6 g | 60 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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