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French Pickles

A pickled tomato and onion relish seasoned with salt, sugar, mustard, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

French Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle salt over the sliced tomatoes and onions; let stand overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain the tomatoes and onions.

  3. Add the water and 1 quart of vinegar to the mixture.

  4. Boil the tomatoes and onions for 20 minutes, then drain again.

Make the dressing and pack

  1. Boil the remaining 4 quarts of vinegar with the other ingredients for 15 minutes.

  2. Put the mixture in jars, pour over the hot dressing, seal, and store in a cool, dry place.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle and absorb the spiced vinegar as they soften.
Onions
Add bulk and mild sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the sliced vegetables, firming them and concentrating flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth that offsets the acidity of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent flavor that mellows during cooking and storage.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tang.

The step that matters

Drain the salted vegetables before boiling. Salt draws out water overnight; if the vegetables are not drained well, extra liquid dilutes the vinegar dressing and weakens its acidity and preservative effect.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, mustard, allspice, clove, cinnamon, 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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