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Ripe Tomato Pickles

A pickled tomato recipe using cider vinegar and egg white to preserve ripe tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Ripe Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash the tomatoes in cold water.

  2. Prick each tomato with a coarse needle.

  3. Pack the tomatoes tightly in a stone jar until full.

Add the vinegar

  1. Heat enough cider vinegar to cover the tomatoes until boiling.

  2. Pour the boiling vinegar over the tomatoes.

Seal and store

  1. On a piece of smooth brown paper, spread the egg white to cover it completely.

  2. Place the paper egg white side down on the tomatoes, pinching the edges to seal.

  3. Cover the jar tightly with paper and let it cool.

  4. Store in a cool, dark place.

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

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

  2. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Tomato + cidertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together524 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cider + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and flavour of the pickle.
Cider vinegar
Acidity that preserves the tomatoes and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Egg white
Spread on the paper to form a airtight seal over the jar.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling vinegar over the tomatoes. The vinegar must be at a full boil so its acidity and heat reach the tomatoes and help preserve them. Vinegar that is too cool may leave the tomatoes unsafe to store.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, egg):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, egg. 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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