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Monday, September 18, 2017

Green Tomato Bacon Jam

Green Tomato Bacon Jam

A savory freezer jam made with green tomatoes, sweet onion, and crispy bacon. This is AMAZING mixed with ground beef for burgers.


photo of a jar of green tomato bacon jam with green tomatoes



A note to the vegetarians who have visited this blog before: thank you for coming back! I beg your pardon, but today's vegetable recipe is really directed at the omnivores and carnivores that stop by (and thank you omnivores, if you've been here before, for returning!)
If you're new here, welcome! I blog about feeding my family seasonal produce from our CSA farm share, our garden, or good deals I find. I like to cook based on what I have available, so I created my Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient (vegetable, or fruit, or fungus) which you can find in the pages across the top. For more recipes using green tomatoes, please check out my Green Tomato Recipe Collection.


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When I started this blog I didn't fully appreciate the versatility of a green, unripe, tomato. I liked to eat fried green tomatoes and hadn't ventured from there. Then a friend shared her Slow Cooker Green Tomato Garlic Chili recipe and I thought I'd dabble in more green tomato recipes. I've got 10 posted--so far!


I decided to make jam with green tomatoes from sheer curiosity. I saw sweet green tomato jam recipes, and savory red tomato and tomato bacon jam recipes, but I didn't find a savory green tomato bacon jam recipe. I started with this recipe and swapped out the red tomato for a bit larger volume of green tomatoes and onion.



image of green tomato bacon jam and green tomatoes



If you grow tomatoes or know someone who does, keep this recipe in mind as the nights get cooler (as tomatoes don't ripen if it's too cool at night).  Sure, you can pick tomatoes and ripen them on the counter, but aren't you getting a wee bit satiated by ripe summer tomatoes?  Are you looking for a little something different?  My answers to those questions are yes and yes, so I'm sharing this today.


Make this jam when your tomato crop is in danger of succumbing to frost.  Store the excess jars in the freezer. Next time you're making burgers, mix 1/4 cup of jam in with a pound of ground meat (I've used beef and turkey so far) then continue with your usual burger making.  I prefer to make quarter pound burgers because I get plenty of protein and sure don't need the bigger burger, and I can make 1 pound of ground meat easily feed our family of 4 on burger nights.


photo of green tomato bacon jam in a pot





For more recipes using green tomatoes, please see my Green Tomato Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.


I'm sharing more recipes on my Pinterest boards, follow me there. If you like a good peek behind the scenes like I do, follow me on Instagram. Need a good read? I'm sharing articles of interest on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?


This jam provides that little something extra that elevates a good burger--beyond.
a collage of images of different ways to enjoy green tomato bacon jam

I've enjoyed it other ways (clockwise from upper left corner, ending in the center):  turkey sliders, on a baguette (also good on a cracker with cream cheese), on a gyro,  on a burger (served with Confetti Potato Salad), chopped green tomatoes can be frozen, you have no idea how many green tomato bacon jam photo shoots I've had, burgers and more burgers, and for a double tomato whammy, on a tomato and mozzarella sandwich.  Not pictured but also enjoyed:  spread on toasted bread and used in a club sandwich.



image of ingredients used for green tomato bacon jam




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photo of a burger patty flavored with green tomato bacon jam



Green Tomato Bacon Jam on Punk Domestics

26 comments:

  1. This sounds sooo good, Kirsten! I love the idea of bacon in jam. I recently saw a recipe for cherry bacon jam, and I want to try that one too. I guess it's time to stock up on bacon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Annemarie,
      It's always a good time to stock up on bacon :) .Cherry bacon jam sounds good-I bet it has that sweet salty thing going on.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  2. Perfect! I was just thinking about the green tomatoes we are going to have once frost threatens. Hopefully we have another 6-8 weeks, but you never know...
    Sarah

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah,
      For me, once the nights cool the tomatoes become very slow to ripen, but I'm hoping for a long growing season this fall so that I may have some fresh ones still when my spouse comes home.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  3. Kirsten: I have thought about making a bacon jam many times but yours looks scrum-didli-umptious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marlene,
      You're so creative, I bet you'd make a delicious bacon jam . . . maybe with ginger, since you're on a ginger kick?
      Thanks!

      Delete
  4. You made BLT's in jam form! And then put it on a burger! That's pretty clever, and I know the Hubby would be a huge fan. If I ever were to rejoin the carnivores club, it'd be with this jam or anything involving bacon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bacon. It's a wonderful thing.
      I'm curious what my spouse does when he returns--will he become carnivorous again? Only time will tell.
      He doesn't feel as strongly as I do about bacon.
      :)

      Delete
  5. I know we will have green tomatoes at the end of the season. I made chutney last year, but I wasn't crazy about it. Bacon jam may be the answer. Thanks for the recipe!
    Sarah

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah,
      This jam--in a burger. I'm drooling typing this, just remembering the flavor.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  6. Oh, Kirsten, you just come up with the greatest recipes. I have to do this next month when my tomatoes finally succumb. I usually get four or five pounds of them, just before the first frost.

    I still have a few packages of venison in the freezer. This may be the perfect complement to venison sliders. I do a mean pulled venison with slaw and BBQ sauce. This would really put it over the top.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Annie,
      A pulled venison slider sounds really delicious to me, and yes, this would be delicious on it.
      Please blog about it so I can share vicariously!
      Thanks!

      Delete
  7. I love bacon...in fact, my entire family does. Which means...this needs to be made pronto!

    thanks for sharing and linking up :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather,
      Bacon . . . it's what's for breakfast in the morning, since I've not had enough tomato sandwiches this week--gotta meet my quota.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  8. Very creative use of green tomatoes, Kirsten! Thanks for sharing with the Clever Chicks!

    Cheers,
    Kathy Shea Mormino
    The Chicken Chick
    http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kathy,
      And the burgers made with this are yummy. Thanks for hosting!

      Delete
  9. This came out pretty good, I added some dark brown sugar, maple syrup, espresso powder, smoked paprika, tomatillos and substituted bourbon smoked salt and it came out great. It works wonders as a hot viniagrette on green beans before it thickens up too much!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh my now you're making me drool--bourbon smoked salt sounds so incredible, and what great flavors you've got going on in there. Thanks for sharing your tweaks!

      Delete
  10. Thank you for submitting to Yum Goggle - This looks so delicious! I must try it very soon

    My daughter and I are the new owners having purchased it about 3 weeks ago. We are checking all links as well as pinning to our new categories. I hope you will continue to submit to YG and look at our new categories - canning and preserving along with others that may better categorize foods for special diets or cooking processes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kelli,
      Congrats on your new venture! I fell out of the routine of submitting to all of the sites months ago, and it's one of my blogging new years resolutions--just like replying to comments *before* 5 months have elapsed is another!
      Thanks!

      Delete
  11. Just made this today - tastes so good it might not make it into jars! Thanks for the inspiration.

    Sharon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sharon,
      I'm glad you liked it! I'd love to know how you're using it.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  12. Can't wait to try this. Can it be preserved preserved other way?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gigi,
      That's a great question--thanks for asking!

      I'm positive that water bath canning is NOT safe, because of the bacon.

      I am not familiar enough with pressure canning to know what is and is not safe (I've only canned tomatoes and meat stock and I followed the recipes that came with the canner) so I cannot recommend that method.

      Often university extension offices are good places to check for the latest info on safe canning methods. A couple of good sites to start with are the National Center for Home Food Preservation http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_home.html , Ball jars canning website http://www.freshpreserving.com , and Food in Jars http://foodinjars.com .

      Good luck!

      Delete
    2. How fill do you fill the jars yo keep them from cracking in the freezer? This looks SO good!

      Delete
    3. Hi Anon!
      Since liquids expand when frozen, I always leave some "headspace" in the container. Often canning jars will have a raised line (near the shoulder of the jar, if it's the type of jar where the glass curves in at the top) but otherwise I leave a good inch or so of space at the top to allow for expansion.

      Delete