Skip to main content
Main

Pickled Lime Relish

A sweet relish made from green tomatoes, pickled limes, and sugar, cooked slowly for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Friday club, Yarmouth, Mass. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tomato and lime are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,878 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pickled Lime Relish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine five cups green tomatoes chopped fine, one cup chopped pickled limes, and five cups sugar.

  2. Cook slowly for three or four hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

82Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
21 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Friday club, Yarmouth, Mass. [from old catalog]. 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. 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.

  1. Tomato + limetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

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

  2. Lime + sugartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provides the bulk and fresh tartness that forms the relish body.
Pickled limes
Adds salty, sour, aromatic flavor that defines the relish.
Sugar
Sweetens and, with long cooking, thickens the relish into a spreadable texture.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for three or four hours. Long, gentle cooking lets the sugar draw moisture out of the tomatoes and evaporate it, concentrating flavor and thickening the relish. Too high a heat can scorch the sugar before the texture sets.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lime, sugar):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lime, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes