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Chopped Tomato Pickle

A pickle made from chopped tomatoes, mustard, spices, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chopped Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the tomatoes and remove the skins.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  3. Bring to a boil and cook until well done.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the pickle, breaking down during cooking to form a thick base.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the pickle.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and soften into the pickle as it cooks.
Mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp flavour that deepens as the pickle cooks.

The step that matters

Cooking until well done. The record gives no time or stopping point, so the pickle may be under- or over-reduced. Cooking long enough softens the tomatoes and onions and lets the vinegar and sugar blend, while overcooking can make it dark and overly thick.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, allspice, pepper, clove, onion, sugar, vinegar. 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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