Russian Fermented Tomatoes (Solyonye Pomidory)

Method

1. 1Sort and prick the tomatoes. You need 1.6 kg of small, firm tomatoes of 60 to 80 g each, at least 4 cm across, which is 20 to 26 tomatoes. They can be red but still hard, or half-ripe, anywhere from pink to brownish. Pick tomatoes that are all at the same stage of ripeness and about the same size, so they are ready together. Throw out any that are soft, overripe, cracked, bruised or mouldy, because soft tomatoes fall apart in the brine. Twist off the stems and wash the tomatoes under cool running water without scrubbing them. Prick each one once or twice at the stem scar with a toothpick, which lets the brine reach the middle sooner. Every tomato that goes into the jar should feel hard when you squeeze it.
2. 2Wash the jar and get the seasonings ready. Wash a 3-litre glass jar and its plastic lid in hot soapy water and rinse them well with very hot water, until the glass squeaks and no soap film is left. Dip the lid in boiling water for 30 seconds. Nothing in this recipe is heated, so the jar has to start clean. Rinse the 3 heads of dill and the 2 horseradish leaves in cold water and shake them dry. Peel the 4 cloves of garlic and cut each one in half. Use only fresh, clean garlic and leaves, with no mould on them.
3. 3Pack the jar. Put 2 heads of dill, 1 horseradish leaf torn into pieces and half the garlic on the bottom. Fit the tomatoes in tightly without squashing them, up to the shoulder of the jar, and push the rest of the garlic into the gaps. Lay the third head of dill on top and fold the second horseradish leaf over everything like a cap. The jar is packed well when nothing shifts as you tilt it and the cap sits 3 to 4 cm below the rim. Tomatoes float in brine, and the tight packing and the leaf are what hold them down.
4. 4Make the cold brine and fill the jar. Weigh 105 g of coarse salt with no iodine in it and stir it into 1.5 l of cold drinking water, filtered or bottled and not boiled, until the water is clear again. That is 70 g of salt per litre. Weigh it, because spoonfuls of coarse salt vary too much, and do not use less: the salt is what keeps the wrong bacteria out while the tomatoes ferment. Stand the jar on a deep plate and pour the brine in right up to the brim. About 1.3 l goes in. Every tomato and leaf should be under the liquid. If one still shows, pour 2 to 3 tablespoons of the leftover brine into a small clean food-grade zip bag, seal it and lay it on top as a weight. Keep the remaining 200 ml or so of brine in a small covered jar in the fridge for topping up.
5. 5Ferment at room temperature for 5 to 7 days. Rest the lid on the jar without pressing it down, so gas can get out, and leave the jar on its plate at 20 to 24 °C, away from direct sun. Never let it sit above 27 °C. Below 16 °C the fermentation hardly starts. Within two or three days the brine turns slightly cloudy, small bubbles rise, foam gathers at the neck and some brine spills onto the plate. It smells sour and garlicky. All of that is normal. Once a day, skim off the foam and any thin white film with a clean spoon, top up with the spare brine so nothing sticks out of the liquid, and empty the plate. If a tomato works loose and floats up, push it back under the horseradish leaf with the clean spoon, or lay the bag of brine from step 4 on top. The warm stage is over when no new foam forms and no bubbles rise. If bubbles are still rising on day 7, leave the jar in the warm, keep skimming and topping up, and look again every 1 to 2 days. If you have pH test strips, dip one into the brine: it should read 4.6 or lower before the jar goes into the cold. If it reads higher, wait and test again every 1 to 2 days. The acid made by the fermentation is what protects the tomatoes, so do not cut this stage short.
6. 6Check the jar and move it to the cold. The brine should be lightly cloudy and smell sour and salty, and the tomatoes should be whole. If the tomatoes are slimy or falling apart, if the smell is rotten, or if you see fuzzy or coloured mould, throw the whole jar out without tasting anything. If all is well, top the jar up to the brim, press the lid on, wipe the glass and put the jar in the fridge, or in a cellar that stays at 0 to 4 °C. The cold slows the fermentation down. Left in the warm the tomatoes would go on fermenting and spoil. Use the same plastic lid, never a metal canning lid, and never keep the jar in a cupboard: these tomatoes are not heat-treated and keep only in the cold.
7. 7Wait 4 weeks before you taste them. The salt and the acid need that long to reach the middle of each tomato. A finished tomato is whole and tastes sour and salty right through. Red ones come out soft but hold their shape, and the skin may wrinkle a little. Half-ripe ones stay firm. The brine should taste a little sharper than the tomatoes. Lift tomatoes out with a clean spoon, keep the rest under the brine with the lid on, and keep the jar at 0 to 4 °C the whole time. Look at the jar each time you open it. Skim off any thin white film. If the tomatoes turn slimy or fall apart, smell rotten, or fuzzy or coloured mould appears, throw the jar out without tasting. Eat them within 4 to 6 months. This is a traditional method and not a tested one, so do not serve these tomatoes to anyone very young, very old, pregnant or chronically ill.