Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
French Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Slice green tomatoes, sweet peppers, and onions thin as paper.
Put one teacupful of salt on each and drain in separate cheese cloth bags.
Next day squeeze very dry.
Make the pickling liquid
Tie spices in a bag and bring to a boil with one gallon of best white wine vinegar, six pounds of brown sugar, five cents worth cinnamon bark, and not quite so much cloves.
Combine and cook
Pour boiling hot over mixture and cook until heated through.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Cinnamon | 1 tsp ground (2.6g) | 6 |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp (15ml) distilled | 3 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,890 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Green tomatoes
- Make up the bulk of the pickle and give it body once cooked.
- Sweet peppers
- Add mild sweetness and a tender bite to the finished pickle.
- Onions
- Add savoury flavour that deepens during cooking.
- White wine vinegar
- Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the acidity with sweetness and adds depth of flavour.
- Cinnamon bark
- Adds warm aroma and spice to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Squeeze the salted vegetables very dry. Salt draws water out of the vegetables. Squeezing away the remaining liquid keeps the pickle firm and stops extra water from thinning the vinegar syrup.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, sugar, tomato, pepper, cinnamon):
- Capsicumfits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, sugar, tomato, pepper, 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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