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Green Tomato Mince Meat

A preserved mixture of green tomatoes, suet, sugar, vinegar, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Green Tomato Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Chop the green tomatoes finely and drain off the water.

  2. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and scald for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain well and repeat the parboil process 3 times.

Make the mince

  1. Add all other ingredients except the spices and stir well.

  2. Cook until thick, then let cool.

  3. Once cool, add the spices and stir thoroughly.

  4. This mixture can be reheated and canned.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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 mince and give it its body as they cook down.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture as it cooks.
Suet
Adds fat, giving richness and a softer texture to the mince.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Raisins or currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture through the mince.

The step that matters

Adding the spices after cooling. Warm spice aromas fade and turn harsh or bitter when boiled for long, so adding the spices once the mixture has cooled keeps their flavour fresh.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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