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Pickled Green Tomatoes

Pickled green tomatoes are preserved in a brine of vinegar, salt, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Pickled Green Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Dissolve the salt in a kettle of water with the vinegar.

  2. Parboil the sliced tomatoes in this mixture.

  3. Skim the tomatoes out and let them drain.

Pack and pickle

  1. Pack the tomatoes into a jar, layering with the mixed spices and onions.

  2. Cover the packed tomatoes with scalding vinegar.

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. Mustard + oniontop 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
Form the bulk of the pickle and soften slightly when parboiled in brine.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the tomatoes and seasons them as they are brined.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the tomatoes and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth between the layers of tomato.
Black mustard seed
Adds a pungent, slightly bitter flavor that complements the sourness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Parboiling the tomatoes in the brine. Parboiling softens the tomatoes just enough to pack tightly and absorb flavor without turning mushy. Overcooking breaks down their structure, so they should be heated only briefly and then drained well before packing.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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