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To Pickle Tomatas

A method for pickling tomatoes using salt, vinegar, spices, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

To Pickle Tomatas

eight quarts or one peck of tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Take a peck of tomatoes, (the small round ones are best for pickling,) and prick every one with a fork.

  2. Put them into a broad stone or earthen vessel, and sprinkle salt between every layer of tomatoes.

  3. Cover them, and let them remain two days in the salt.

  4. Then put them into vinegar and water mixed in equal quantities, half and half, and keep them in it twenty-four hours to draw out the saltness.

  5. There must be sufficient of the liquid to cover the tomatoes well.

Layer with spices and vinegar

  1. To a peck of tomatoes allow a bottle of mustard, half an ounce of cloves, and half an ounce of pepper, with a dozen onions sliced thin.

  2. Pack the tomatoes in a stone jar, placing the spices and onions alternately with the layers of tomatoes.

  3. Put them in till the jar is two-thirds full.

  4. Then fill it up with strong cold vinegar, and stop it closely.

  5. The pickles will be fit to eat in a fortnight.

  6. If you do not like onions, substitute for them a larger quantity of spice.

Salt the ripe tomatoes

  1. For this purpose you must have the best and ripest tomatoes, and they must be gathered on a dry day.

  2. Do not peel them, but merely cut them into slices.

  3. Having strewed some salt over the bottom of a tub, put in the tomatoes in layers; sprinkling between each layer (which should be about two inches in thickness) a handful of salt.

  4. Repeat this till you have put in eight quarts or one peck of tomatoes.

  5. Cover the tub and let it set for three days.

Boil, bottle and seal

  1. Then early in the morning, put the tomatoes into a large porcelain kettle, and boil it slowly and steadily till ten at night, frequently mashing and stirring the tomatoes.

  2. Then put it out to cool.

  3. Next morning strain and press it through a sieve, and when no more liquid will pass through, put it into a clean kettle with two ounces of cloves, one ounce of mace, two ounces of black pepper, and two tablespoonfuls of cayenne, all powdered.

  4. Again let it boil slowly and steadily all day, and put it to cool in the evening in a large pan.

  5. Cover it, and let it set all night.

  6. Next day put it into small bottles, securing the corks by dipping them in melted rosin, and tying leathers over them.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

19Calories
0 gProtein
1 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

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

By Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Tomatoes (in the method)
Their flesh softens and breaks down during slow boiling, forming the thick body of the pickle.
Vinegar (in the method)
Its acidity preserves the tomatoes and gives the finished pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour that penetrates the tomatoes during the long cooking.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma that complements the other spices.
Black pepper
Adds sharpness and warm background heat to the spiced tomato mixture.
Cayenne
Adds clean, direct heat that sharpens the overall flavour.

The step that matters

Boil slowly and steadily, stirring often. Slow, steady heat with frequent stirring and mashing keeps the tomatoes from scorching on the bottom of the kettle and lets water evaporate evenly, so the pulp thickens smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, pepper):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, pepper. 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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