Mom’s Green Tomato Pie Recipe (2024)

Painless Cooking
Pies
Green Tomato

Recently, my cousin Retha requested Mom’s green tomato pie recipe. Retha lives in California. You may remember me mentioning her from time to time. My mom and Retha’s dad were brother and sister; Mom loved her just like one of us. In the fifties I went with Mom and Dad to see her pull out and head for California where they started a mineral resort still run by their family today. The gold rush!!!

Anyway, Retha was a young mother with a small baby boy? She and herhubby loaded up with baby in their mobile home. We watched as theypulled away from the hillside where they lived to head west. I couldfeel the sadness from my aunt and uncle (Retha’s mom and dad) and my momand dad. At that time, remember California was a world away; not liketoday.

I was probably ten years old and for me I felt excitementfor this young family as they traveled to this new exciting place; notlike “boring Ohio”. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ohio and all theWONDERFUL memories of growing up there. Just like Mom’s green tomato pierecipe and her other old traditional recipes and all of Dad’s cooking;this is why I do this website.

I am so grateful to Retha forbringing Mom’s green tomato pie recipe to my attention. Mom made so manyold fashioned pie recipes but I didn’t remember this one. I begansearching through all my notes from family recipes; I started callingthe siblings who we have left on this earth. Through all this Idiscovered some other interesting tidbits.

When searching for this green tomato pie recipe, there are some things Iknew about Mom’s cooking to lead me in the right direction. First, allpie dough was made with a lard and flour base; she never used suchthings as a cookie dough crust or graham cracker crust. Another thing Iknew is that it had to be sweet; I don’t remember anything but sweetpies. This rules out most of today’s green tomato pie recipes with allthe different cheeses; another thing is that we didn’t have cheese likethat.

Just to add an interesting note about Mom’s pie baking. Dadalways said Mom’s pies were not the most beautiful but they were thebest tasting. This is because most of her life was during the times oframpant diseases; tuberculosis, smallpox, measles and I even rememberpeople dying from polio. As a little girl, we would walk into town topick up our mail (we had no addresses); Mom always covered my face with aclean handkerchief when we walked pass the few houses along the way.

It is hard for us to envision that kind of life today but Mom took itvery seriously. She was a fanatic about cleanliness and this wasreflected in her pie making! She would not touch any of the food whichshe prepared. When it came to pie making she managed to roll the doughand complete the pie without touching the dough.

My first callwas to Sister Donna. Although she, like all of us loved Mom’s cookingespecially her pie recipes, Donna couldn’t remember anything about thegreen tomato pie recipe. We all remember the rhubarb pies and the manywild berry pies. We had a huge mulberry tree when we were young growingup the side of the house. We could climb out the upstairs window intothe tree. All of us kids would climb this tree to pick mulberries; Momwould take these and make pies.

GREEN TOMATO PIE RECIPE

Green Tomato Pie Recipe

Dough for 2 crusted pie
5 Tablespoons flour
1 ½ Cups sugar
5 Cups very thinly sliced green tomatoes
1 Teaspoon salt
½ Teaspoon nutmeg
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon vinegar

Filling a Green Tomato Pie

Preheat oven to 400F degrees; line bottom of 9 inch pie pan with dough.
Sift all dry ingredients together; sprinkle a little over bottom of unbaked pie shell.
Put in a layer of tomato slices; sprinkle a layer of dry ingredients over the top of tomatoes.
Continue with layers of tomatoes sprinkling each layer with dry ingredients.

Filling a Green Tomato Pie

Dot top with pieces of butter; drizzle vinegar over the top.
Wet the rim of the lower pie crust; top with rolled pie dough and crimp edges to seal.
With sharp knife cut openings in top crust to let steam escape.
Bake at 400F degrees for 15 minutes; LOWER HEAT TO 350F degrees and bake about 50 minutes longer.

Green Tomato Pie Ready to Bake

SOUR CHERRY PIE RECIPE made with ground cherries

1 Quart ground cherries
1 ½ Cups sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
Butter
2 Layer pie crust dough

Mix cherries, flour and sugar; spoon into crust lined pie pan. (Use metal pan for high heat)
Dot top of fruit with small pieces of butter.
Roll dough for top; wet edges and place dough on top and pinch to seal.
Slash several places with knife to let steam escape.
Bake in preheated oven at 450F degrees for 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350F degrees and bake 30 minutes longer.

GREEN TOMATO PIE RECIPE

Pastry dough for double crust pie

Filling

3 Cups sliced green tomatoes drained
6 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 Teaspoons grated lemon rind
3 Tablespoons flour
½ Teaspoon cinnamon
¼ Teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 400F degrees.

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT butter; mix well together.

Line a large pie plate with pastry rolled pastry dough.

Pour filling mixture into pie shell; dot top with butter.

Cover filling with a top crust cutting a couple steam vents; trim and crimp edges.

Bake about 40 minutes until tomatoes are tender.

GREEN TOMATO BRANDY PIE RECIPE

Dough for double crust pie

4 Cups sliced green tomatoes
½ Cup water
½ Cup raisins (Soak in warm water 15 minutes)
1 Cup sugar MIXED with 2 tablespoons flour
¾ Teaspoon cinnamon
½ Teaspoon ginger
¼ Teaspoon nutmeg
2 Tablespoons butter (Cut in little pieces)
1 Teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 ½ Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ Cup brandy

Preheat oven to 450F degrees.

Roll half of dough and line a 9 inch pie tin.

Pour water over tomatoes in skillet; simmer until tomatoes absorb most of water and are tender.

Add raisin to the skillet and simmer 2 minutes longer; drain off all liquid and SAVE.

Place tomatoes and raisins in lined pie tin; sprinkle top with sugar mixture, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

Dot top of pie with butter; add grated lemon peel and lemon juice.

Pour brandy over the pie; roll out remaining dough and cover pie cutting slashes for steam vents.

Trim off excess dough and crimp edges.

Bake at 450F degrees for 15 minutes; REDUCE HEAT to 375F degrees and bake another 30 minutes until browned.

GREEN TOMATO APPLE TART RECIPE

Try this green tomato pie recipe with apples baked in a flat pan.

Dough

1 Cup sifted flour
1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
½ Cup softened butter

Filling

1 Large tart apple (or more) peeled cored and sliced ¼ inch thick
1 or 2 Large green tomatoes sliced ¼ inch thick
Fresh lemon juice
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
½ Cup blackberry jelly or jam heated and sieved
Whipped cream

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Combine flour, powdered sugar and butter; work with fingers into a dough.

Pat dough into the bottom of a flat pan. (I use one measuring about 4 ½ inches by 14 inches).

Place apple and green tomato slices alternating and overlapping overtop of the dough.

Sprinkle top generously with the lemon juice; mix sugar and cornstarch and sift over the top.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes until apples and tomatoes are tender.

Spread warmed jelly over top; serve with shipped cream.