Name: Green Tomato Pickle
Ingredients: 2 gallons green tomatoes, sliced without peeling; 12 large onions, sliced; 2 tablespoons ground mustard; 2 quarts vinegar; 2 tablespoons ground black pepper; 1 quart sugar; 1 teaspoon allspice; 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 teaspoon cloves

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 Pickle

Ingredients

2 gallons green tomatoes, sliced without peeling
12 large onions, sliced
2 tablespoons ground mustard
2 quarts vinegar
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
1 quart sugar
1 teaspoon allspice
2 tablespoons coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
1 teaspoon cloves

Directions

Make the pickle

Mix all ingredients together in a large pot.
Stew the mixture over medium heat until tender, stirring often to prevent scorching.

Store

Transfer the pickle into glass jars for storage.

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.

Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,928 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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 bulk of the pickle and its firm, tart body once stewed.
Onions: Add sweetness and savory depth that mellows as they cook down.
Vinegar: Supplies the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp tang.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes with sweetness.
Ground mustard: Adds pungent, sharp flavor that carries through the stewed mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring during the stew. Tomatoes and sugar are prone to scorching on the bottom of the pot over medium heat. Frequent stirring spreads heat evenly and keeps the sugars from burning, which would give a bitter taste.

Swap the tomato

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

Horseradishfits better
Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, mustard, vinegar, pepper, sugar, allspice, clove. 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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Green Tomato Pickle