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Green Tomato Sweet Pickle

A sweet pickle made from sliced green tomatoes, vinegar, cabbage, sugar, spices, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Green Tomato Sweet Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine sliced tomatoes, vinegar, chopped cabbage, sugar, mustard seeds, coarse sea salt, black pepper, celery seed, and onions in a large pot.

  2. Add white ginger, cloves, and mace to taste.

  3. Boil the mixture until done, stirring occasionally.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 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 bulk and tart body of the pickle.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness and adds sweetness.
Onions
Contribute savory flavor and soft texture as they cook down.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until done. Boiling drives off excess water and lets the vinegar and sugar concentrate and soften the vegetables. Stop too early and the pickle stays watery and sharp; cook too long and the tomatoes turn mushy.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cabbage, sugar, mustard, pepper, celery, onion. 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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