Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Pickles

A preserved tomato relish made with tomatoes, onions, spices, vinegar, and mustard, left to mature for up to ten days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,913 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: soy

Directions

Salt the tomatoes

  1. Take 1 peck yellow tomatoes or small round red ones, prick each with a fork, put in a jar in layers with salt between. Let remain 8 days.

  2. Drain off.

Add the spices and onions

  1. Add 12 large white onions sliced, 2 ounces each of ground cloves and allspice, 1 ounce pepper, 1 bottle good mustard.

  2. Put a layer of spices and onions between 2 layers of tomatoes.

  3. Scald the vinegar and pour over cold.

Make the sauce

  1. Peel and chop 4 quarts ripe tomatoes, chop 1 cup red peppers, 1 cup onions peeled and chopped.

  2. Add 1 cup each of sugar and salt.

  3. Add 1 pint vinegar, 1 teaspoon cloves and cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger, and 1 grated nutmeg.

  4. Boil 3 hours.

  5. Strain or not.

  6. Bottle and seal hot.

Cook the second batch

  1. Chop 1 peck ripe tomatoes and 8 large onions finely.

  2. Add 1 cup sugar, 1 cup vinegar, a little salt, a little red pepper, 1 tablespoon mixed spices tied in a muslin bag.

  3. Boil until as thick as you want it.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,913 recipes

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

  2. Clove + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,144 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together20,622 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,243 recipes

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

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Yellow tomatoes
Salted and drained, they give the base of the pickle its bulk and flesh.
White onions
Layered with spices, they add sweetness and soften as the pickle matures.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavour.
Ripe tomatoes
Break down during boiling to form the body of the thick sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until as thick as you want it. Long simmering evaporates water and concentrates sugar and acid, which sets the texture and helps the pickle keep. Stopping early leaves a thin, less stable sauce.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, pepper, tomato, sugar, vinegar, mustard, tea):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Cucumberbetter flavor fit
  3. Lettucebetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, pepper, tomato, sugar, vinegar, mustard, tea. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

More pickled tomatoes recipes

Sweet 15French 10Spanish 10Spiced 4 See all 75 →

You might also like

Illustration of Tomato SoupIllustrationTomato Soup526 recipesIllustration of Cream of Tomato SoupIllustrationCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesIllustration of Tomato BisqueIllustrationTomato Bisque61 recipesIllustration of Cream Tomato SoupIllustrationCream Tomato Soup28 recipes