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Preserved Tomatoes

A method of preserving tomatoes in a lemon-sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,592 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Preserved Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Select small round tomatoes and scald them to loosen the skins.

  2. Peel the tomatoes.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. Prepare a syrup using 1 pound of sugar for each pound of tomatoes.

  2. Add the tomatoes and the peel of the lemon to the syrup and let them simmer for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in the juice of the lemon.

  4. When the tomatoes are clear and soft, remove them one at a time and place them in tumblers or small jars.

Pot and seal

  1. Pour the warm syrup over the tomatoes.

  2. Once cooled, cover with brandy paper and secure to exclude air.

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. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Small round tomatoes
Provide the main body of the preserve, softening as they simmer in the syrup.
Loaf sugar
Draws out moisture and preserves the tomatoes while adding sweetness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweet syrup.

The step that matters

Simmering until clear and soft. Simmering gently in the sugar syrup lets the sugar slowly replace the water in the tomatoes. Cooking too briefly leaves them unpreserved, while overcooking can break them down.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Kalefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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