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Ripe Tomato Curry

A preserved tomato curry made with tomatoes, onions, raisins, cloves, allspice, salt, vinegar, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Ripe Tomato Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes into a stone jar.

  2. Add the minced onions and raisins to the jar.

  3. Pound the cloves and allspice, then add them along with the salt to the vinegar.

  4. Heat the vinegar mixture to boiling and pour it over the tomatoes.

Steep and strain

  1. Set the jar on the back of the stove for three weeks, pouring off the vinegar twice a week, heating it, and pouring it back over the tomatoes.

  2. On the fourth heating, sprinkle the curry powder over the tomatoes.

  3. After the last heating at the end of three weeks, press the contents through a sieve.

  4. Heat again and transfer to bottles or jars, then seal.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Raisin + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and break down into its body during long steeping.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid and extracts flavour from the spices and vegetables.
Raisins
Add sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Curry powder
Provides the main spiced aroma and flavour of the sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the vinegar over the tomatoes during the three weeks. Repeated heating extracts flavour and helps preserve the sauce, while the vinegar's acidity keeps spoilage organisms in check. Letting it cool too long between heatings slows this effect.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, clove, allspice, vinegar. 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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