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Chopped Pickles

Pickled green tomatoes with onions, salt, vinegar, red peppers, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chopped Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Layer the green tomatoes and chopped onions in a bowl, sprinkling salt between the layers.

  2. Let them sit overnight.

  3. Drain the mixture through a colander.

Cook and pickle

  1. Cook the drained mixture in 2 quarts of water for 20 minutes. Drain again.

  2. Add 4 cups of vinegar, 3 chopped red peppers, and a stick of cinnamon to the mixture. Boil for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

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.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,348 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and provide its firm, tart body.
Onions
Add savory flavor and aroma that blends into the pickling liquid.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions, firming them and seasoning the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp tang.
Red peppers
Add sweetness, color and mild crunch to the finished pickle.

The step that matters

Stirring while the mixture boils. Sugars and solids in the mixture can scorch on the bottom of the pot during the 15-minute boil. Frequent stirring spreads heat evenly and prevents burning, which would give a bitter taste.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, vinegar, 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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