Great-Grandma Chisholm’ s Green Tomato Pie

THE PULPWOOD QUEENS' TIARA WEARING, BOOK SHARING, GUIDE TO LIFE celebrates female friendship, sisterhood, and the transformative power of reading. It includes life principles and motivational anecdotes, hilarious and heart-warming stories of friendships among the Queens, and stories from Kathy L. Murphy about the books that have inspired her throughout her life, complete with personalized suggested book lists.

I always love sharing different chapters or excerpts from Kathy’s book here in Reading Nation Magazine, but I think this is my favorite find!

Great-Grandma Chisholm’ s Green Tomato Pie

Who would ever think that a pie made with tomatoes could be as rich (and sweet) as any you’ve ever tasted? This recipe comes from my mother’s side of the family and has to be tasted to be believed. It tastes just like apple pie, except way richer. This is what they used to make when apples weren’t readily available and too expensive to buy. The pie is fantastic with homemade vanilla ice cream but that’s my daddy’s recipe, and he hasn’t given it to me yet.

Ingredients:1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

6 large green tomatoes or 8 small (they must be totally green tomatoes with absolutely no signs of ripeness or redness), sliced

Juice of one lemon

2 tablespoons butter

Pie crust for top and bottom—use your favorite recipe

Divide dough into two equal balls. Roll out dough for upper and bottom crust. Grandma Chisholm, who personally taught me this recipe, once said to me, “Now sister, work that dough as little as possible to get the flakiest crust and don’t use too much flour when you roll it out. It makes the dough tougher than that old rooster we cooked last Sunday.”

Combine the sugar and cinnamon and set aside. Place bottom crust in pie pan and as you layer in the tomatoes, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Pour the last of the sugar cinnamon on top, squeeze on lemon juice, and dab with butter. Top with upper crust. With a knife, trim excess dough and pinch into flutes around the top of the pie. All four-foot-nine of my grandma Chisholm used to do this lickety-split. Slice a design in the top center to let steam escape. She used to slice KATSOUP into the top as that was my nickname (based on my mispronouncing “catsup” when I was first learning how to read). Bake on a cookie sheet for 1 hour at 350 degrees and check the pie as it bakes. If the top looks too brown, cover the edges with aluminum foil.