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Sweet Tomato Pickle

A pickled green tomato and pepper mixture sweetened with sugar and spices, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the green tomatoes, green peppers, and raw onions.

  2. Layer them in an earthen crock, sprinkling salt between each layer.

  3. Let them soak overnight, then drain off the liquid.

Cook the pickle

  1. Boil the mixture on the stove.

  2. Add ginger, cinnamon, sugar, and allspice.

  3. Cover with strong vinegar and boil until soft and brown.

Store

  1. Store in earthen jars.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and soften into a tender, spoonable texture during boiling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pickle brown and thicken as it cooks down.
Strong vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavor against the sweetness.
Onions
Add savory bulk and aroma that mellow during long boiling.
Ginger
Contributes warm, pungent aroma that balances the sweetness and acidity.

The step that matters

Cover with strong vinegar and boil until soft and brown. The pickle must cook long enough for the vegetables to soften fully and the sugars to caramelize and darken. Stopping early leaves firm vegetables and a pale, sharp result, while overcooking can scorch the sugar and make it bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, allspice, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, allspice, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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