Green Tomato Mincemeat

for the Irish in me!

Today is mincemeat day!!  Gus and I used an old meat grinder and ground up 8 lbs of green tomatoes, 4 cups of raisins, 6 apples - cooked the tomatoes in a syrup of 1 quart of water with 4 lbs of brown sugar.   Cooked all the tomatoes until transparent.  Then added a cup of cider vinegar to 4 tbsp of cloves, 4 tbsp of cinnamon, 1 tbsp of salt, and 1/2 tbsp of pepper.  We ground up the raisins and apples and mixed them with the cider vinegar mixture.  We added that to the pot of brown sugar syrup and ground green tomatoes.  Cooked it for about ten minutes and then canned the mixture in sterilized pint mason jars.  1 pint jar will work nicely for 1 double crust pie.   I always add some little pats of butter on top of the pie filling before sealing with the top crust on the pie.  We will reserve a few jars for our pantry, but will be sharing some with beloved friends and family for their holiday baking!