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Green Tomato Pickles

Pickled green tomatoes with onions, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the tomatoes and remove any spots.

  2. Slice the tomatoes and layer them with onions and salt in a large bowl.

  3. Cover and let stand overnight.

  4. In the morning, drain off the liquid.

Cook and jar

  1. Put the tomatoes and onions in a porcelain-lined kettle with all the ingredients.

  2. Cover with vinegar and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  3. Transfer to stone or glass jars.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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
Provide the main body of the pickle, becoming tender as they cook in the vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the tomatoes and gives the pickle its tang.
Coarse sea salt
Draws liquid out of the tomatoes and onions overnight, firming their texture.
Sliced onions
Add savory flavor and moisture that blends into the pickling liquid.
Whole allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickle.

The step that matters

Draining after the overnight salting. Salt draws out a lot of liquid overnight. Draining it off removes excess water, so the pickle stays firm and the vinegar and spices can flavor the tomatoes properly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, allspice, pepper, mustard, clove, cider, 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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