Name: Sweet Tomato Pickle
Ingredients: 1 peck small green tomatoes; 2 tablespoons allspice; ½ cup vinegar; 2 tablespoons whole cloves; 4 cups brown sugar or 2 cups maple sugar; 2 tablespoons cinnamon; ¾ cup coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sweet Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

1 peck small green tomatoes
2 tablespoons allspice
½ cup vinegar
2 tablespoons whole cloves
4 cups brown sugar or 2 cups maple sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
¾ cup coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Directions

Prepare

Halve the tomatoes and soak them in weak brine (¾ cup salt to 1 gallon water) overnight.
Place the spices in a cheesecloth bag, then add the sugar and vinegar.

Cook and can

Cook everything together until the tomatoes are soft.
Can the mixture while hot.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,348 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 green tomatoes: Form the main body of the pickle and soften into a tender, chunky texture when cooked.
Brown sugar or maple sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the tomatoes and vinegar.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps keep the pickle stable.
Cinnamon: Adds warm, sweet aroma that defines the pickle's spiced character.

The step that matters

Can the mixture while hot. Filling jars while the mixture is hot helps drive out air, so a vacuum seal forms as the jars cool. This seal is what keeps the pickle safe to store.

Swap the tomato

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

Mustardfits better
Horseradishfits better
Capsicumfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, vinegar, clove, sugar, cinnamon. 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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Sweet Tomato Pickle