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Tomato Marmalade for Winter Soup

A preserved tomato marmalade made with tomatoes, gumbo, onions, salt, and pepper, boiled for several hours and canned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Tomato Marmalade for Winter Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the tomatoes and chop the gumbo finely.

  2. In a large pot, combine the tomatoes, gumbo, onions, salt, and black pepper.

Cook and seal

  1. Boil the mixture for 5 to 6 hours until it thickens.

  2. Pour the hot mixture into tin cans and seal immediately.

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. 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

Ripe tomatoes
Form the bulk of the marmalade and break down into a thick, spreadable base.
Gumbo
Adds body and bulk as it softens during the long boil.
Onions
Contribute savory flavor and some body to the cooked mixture.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the mixture and draws moisture out, helping it thicken during the boil.

The step that matters

Boiling until it thickens. Long boiling evaporates water and concentrates sugars and solids, so the mixture thickens. Stopping early leaves it too loose to hold, and the sealed cans may not keep well.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, 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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