Green Tomato Chutney is one of those things that you almost hope you don't have to make (apart from that it's delicious). It would be so much nicer to eat all the tomatoes in the red and juicy state that they should be, however the recent wet summers mean that there are often green tomatoes left at the end of the season. This is an ideal way to use them up.
I've never seen green tomatoes for sale anywhere, although I wouldn't be surprised if you could get them at some larger farmers markets. The ones I used were the last stragglers from the greenhouse, there were a few orange and red ones in there as well.

Nigel Slater has written a nice article about green tomatoes, which includes another recipe.

This recipe is taken from the "Good Housekeeping" Cookery Book, granny recommended it as the best, and she should know.

  See here for the Green Tomato Chutney Recipe in more detail.

Recipe Costs

£0.40 300g cooking apples
£0.16 1 large onion
£0.00 900g  green tomatoes
£0.16 125g sultanas
£0.02 1 1/2 tsp salt
£0.20 125g demerara sugar
£0.35 270ml malt vinegar
£0.05 1 tsp mustard powder
£0.01 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
£0.50 50g fresh ginger
£1.85 Total
£2.05 per kg of chutney  (an eighth of the cost of Rick Stein's Green Tomato Chutney)

The tomatoes are thinly sliced and put in the preserving pan.

Chopped apples, onions, sultanas, sugar and dry spices went in next, I used mustard seeds as I had run out of powder. I only roughly chop the apples, as they will be reduced to a pulp, the onions are chopped a bit finer.

I added 50g of fresh ginger in a muslin bag as well, nothing like a bit of improvisation when chutney making, although interestingly it was the most expensive ingredient and pushed the overall cost up quite a bit. I smash it about a bit with a rolling pin before putting it in the bag, this helps release more of the flavour.

I used the spicy pickling vinegar I'd recently made for pickling onions, this should add some extra depth to the finished chutney.

All the ingredients in the pan and ready to bring to the boil.

After 55 minutes of simmering the bottom of the pan stayed visible after drawing a spoon across it, a sure sign that the chutney has reached the correct consistency.
Remove the muslin bag at this stage.

The chutney was potted into steralised jars and should be ready in a few months.

Recipe Timings

30 mins chopping etc.
55 mins simmering
15 mins potting