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Dessert

Green Tomato Mincemeat

A sweet preserve made from green tomatoes, sugar, cider, vinegar, raisins, spices, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Green Tomato Mincemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the chopped green tomatoes in a colander for 1 hour.

Cook

  1. In a preserving kettle, combine the tomatoes, brown sugar, boiled cider, and vinegar.

  2. Cook until the tomatoes are done and clear.

  3. Add the raisins, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Jar and store

  1. Pour into small jars while boiling hot and seal.

  2. When ready to make pies, add liquor from sweet pickles or preserved fruit, and chopped apples for improvement.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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 mincemeat and give it its chopped, moist body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture while it cooks down.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated apple flavour and sweetness to the filling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps preserve the mixture.
Raisins
Contribute chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Pour into small jars while boiling hot and seal. Filling hot jars and sealing while the mixture is still boiling helps drive out air and keeps the contents from spoiling. Letting it cool before sealing gives microbes a chance to grow.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cider, vinegar, raisin, cinnamon, allspice, clove):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cider, vinegar, raisin, cinnamon, allspice, clove. 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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