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Green Tomato Pickle

Pickled green tomatoes in a spiced vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Green Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Quarter the green tomatoes and cook them in 1 quart of vinegar and enough water to prevent burning until tender.

  2. Drain off all the liquid.

Make the syrup and store

  1. In a pot, heat 2.5 quarts of vinegar, 2 pounds of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of allspice, 2 tablespoons of mustard, 2 tablespoons of cloves, and ½ pound of mustard seed until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture over the pickles and store in a covered crock.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes (in the method)
Provide the bulk of the pickle, softening during cooking to take up the spiced vinegar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tang.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, slightly bitter flavour and crunch to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Cooking the tomatoes until tender. Cooking the tomatoes in vinegar and water until fully tender lets them absorb the spiced liquid. Too little water risks scorching, while stopping early leaves firm, under-flavoured pieces.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, mustard, clove, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, mustard, clove, pepper. 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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