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Green Tomato Pickle

Pickled green tomatoes and onions preserved in vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle the chopped onions with salt and let them stand overnight.

  2. Drain off all the water from the onions.

Cook and store

  1. In a large pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, and spices.

  2. Add the drained onions and sliced tomatoes to the pot.

  3. Boil the mixture for half an hour.

  4. Transfer to jars and cover closely.

  5. Three or four days later, boil again for a few minutes and store.

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

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 provide its tart, fresh-vegetable texture.
Onions
Add savory flavor and body, and salting them first draws out water for a crisper result.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the onions, firming them and reducing their moisture.

The step that matters

Draining the salted onions. Salt pulls water out of the onions by osmosis. If they are not drained well, the excess liquid dilutes the vinegar and brine, weakening the pickle's acidity and making it soggier.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, sugar, pepper. 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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