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Hodge Podge

A pickled green tomato mixture with onions, peppers, mustard seeds, and spices.

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. Slice the green tomatoes and sprinkle lightly with salt. Let stand for 2 hours.

  2. Drain off the liquid and discard it.

Make the pickle

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

  2. Pack the mixture into small jars and seal.

Serve

  1. 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 pickle and give it a tart, firm body.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the sliced tomatoes so the pickle stays firmer.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavour.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and body to the pickle as they soften in the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows as the pickle stands.
Black mustard seed
Contributes a stronger, more pungent bite to the spice blend.

The step that matters

Draining the salted tomatoes. Salt draws out liquid over the two-hour rest. Discarding that liquid removes excess water, so the pickle stays firm and does not dilute the vinegar.

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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