Why it works: Lime and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,289 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Tomato Preserve
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Prick the tomatoes with a darning needle.
Soak them in a solution of salt water (1 tablespoon salt per 3 quarts of water) or lime-water (1 teaspoon lime per 3 quarts of water) for 15-20 minutes.
Rinse the tomatoes in fresh water and drain thoroughly.
Cook the preserve
Grease the bottom of a preserving pan with a little butter and add ½ cup of water.
Layer the tomatoes in the pan and cover with sugar, repeating until all fruit and sugar are used.
Bring the mixture to a boil slowly until the sugar is dissolved.
Cook rapidly for about 2 hours, or until the fruit is transparent.
During cooking, add the bruised ginger in muslin and optional lemon juice.
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.
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Lime + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,289 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lime + gingertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,621 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Tomato + limetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,878 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,887 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
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main fruit body, which turns translucent as the sugar penetrates during cooking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and, through its concentration, helps the fruit become clear and set.
- Lime
- Used in the soaking solution to help the tomatoes keep their firmness during cooking.
The step that matters
Cook rapidly for about 2 hours, or until the fruit is transparent. Sugar must fully dissolve before a rapid boil; if the mixture is not hot enough or stirred poorly, the sugar can crystallize or scorch on the base of the pan. Sustained cooking concentrates the syrup so the fruit becomes translucent.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, lime, butter, ginger):
- Mangofits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Avocadofits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, lime, butter, ginger. 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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