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Tomato Soy

A pickled tomato dish flavored with mustard, pepper, allspice, onions, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Tomato Soy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes and sprinkle the salt over them. Let them stand for 24 hours.

Cook

  1. Drain the tomatoes and place them in a porcelain-lined kettle with the onions and spices.

  2. Cover with cold vinegar and boil until perfectly soft, stirring often to prevent burning.

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. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 soft, spreadable texture when boiled.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the sliced tomatoes, firming them and concentrating their flavor before cooking.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that mellows during the long simmer in vinegar.
Sliced onions
Contribute sweetness and savory depth as they soften into the mixture.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the mixture and sharpens its flavor.

The step that matters

Boil until perfectly soft, stirring often. Stirring prevents the sugars and solids from sticking and scorching on the bottom of the kettle, which would give a burnt taste. Long boiling is needed to break the tomatoes down fully.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, pepper, allspice, onion, 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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