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Hodge Podge

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, onions, peppers, mustard seeds, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Hodge Podge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Sprinkle sliced tomatoes lightly with salt and let stand for 2 hours.

  2. Drain off the liquid and discard it.

Make the relish

  1. Add vinegar, onions, green pepper, mustard seeds, cloves, mace, ginger, black pepper, cinnamon, and celery seed to the tomatoes.

  2. Mix well and pack the mixture into small jars.

  3. Seal the jars.

  4. It is ready for use as soon as made.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  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 relish and, after salting and draining, give it a firm, chunky texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws liquid out of the sliced tomatoes, firming them before the drained liquid is discarded.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the relish and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury body that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes a mild, sharp pungency that develops as the relish stands.
Black mustard seed
Adds a stronger, more pungent heat and a deeper flavour to the relish.

The step that matters

Draining the salted tomatoes. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes by osmosis. Discarding that liquid keeps the relish firm and stops it from becoming watery and diluted once the vinegar is added.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar, onion, pepper, mustard, clove, ginger):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, onion, pepper, mustard, clove, ginger. 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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