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Pickled Tomatoes

Pickled tomatoes preserved in a vinegar and salt brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash the tomatoes and pierce each one with a fork.

  2. Layer the tomatoes in a deep pan, sprinkling salt between each layer. Let them stand for two days, then rinse in clear water.

Brine and drain

  1. Place the tomatoes in stone jars and cover with equal parts vinegar and water.

  2. Let them sit until the next day.

  3. Remove the tomatoes from the vinegar and water, then empty the jars.

Pack and finish

  1. Separate the garlic and remove the skins.

  2. Layer the tomatoes with the spices until the jars are three-quarters full.

  3. Cover with cold 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  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

Tomatoes
Form the body of the pickle and absorb the brine's flavour as they soak.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the tomatoes.
Garlic
Adds a pungent aroma that mellows as the pickle sits.
Whole cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice to the pickling liquid.
Whole peppercorns
Add sharp, aromatic heat that infuses the tomatoes during pickling.

The step that matters

Salting and rinsing the tomatoes. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes and firms their flesh, while rinsing afterwards removes surface salt so the pickle is not overly salty. Skipping the rinse or cutting the standing time changes both texture and taste.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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