Name: Strawberry Pickles
Ingredients: three pints sugar; six quarts of berries; half pounds of fruit to above proportions; eight pounds green tomatoes; four pounds brown sugar; two quarts water; 1 gallon not strong vinegar; 2 pounds sugar; one pound of brown sugar in one quart of vin- egar; 1 pound brown sugar; 1 quart of vin- egar; 2 tablespoons of cloves; a quart of vinegar; a pint of salt to a peck of cucumbers; two coffee-cups cider vinegar; two jars; one; one peck tomatoes chopped fine; one tea-cup salt; 6 onions chopped fine; one quart of vin- egar; one peck of tomatoes; 1 teacup of salt; one-half tea- cup of black pepper; 4 onions chop- ped fine; 1 teacup of celery seed; 2 table- spoons of cinnamon; cinnamon; cloves; vinegar

Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

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 + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,405 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Coffee + teatop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).
Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Clove + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,319 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Strawberries (in the method): Hold their shape in the syrup while their juices and flavour mellow.
Sugar: Sweetens the pickle and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out moisture.
Cider vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the fruit.
Cinnamon: Adds warm aroma and spice flavour to the fruit.
Cloves: Adds strong aromatic spice flavour to the fruit.

The step that matters

Boil the strawberries slowly for twenty-five minutes. Slow simmering lets the syrup thicken and penetrate the fruit while keeping berries whole. Boiling too hard breaks the fruit down into mush.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, clove, cucumber, coffee, cider, tea):

Mustardfits better
Capsicumfits better
Lettucefits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, clove, cucumber, coffee, cider, tea. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery Seed	1 stalk (40g)	6
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Fruit	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Cider	not in our table	0
Mace	not in our table	0

Strawberry Pickles