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French Pickle

A pickled green tomato and onion relish seasoned with mustard seed, brown sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

French Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the green tomatoes and onions, then sprinkle with salt and let stand overnight.

Make the pickle

  1. In the morning, drain the liquid and cook the tomatoes and onions in 1 qt. vinegar and 2 qts. water for 20 minutes.

  2. Drain again, then combine 2 qts. vinegar, mustard seed, brown sugar, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger in a pot.

  3. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes and seal in hot jars.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Onion + mustardtop 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the main body of the pickle, becoming tender after salting and simmering.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions, firming them and reducing excess liquid.
Onions
Add savory bulk and sweetness that softens during cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tangy flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavor to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Drain after salting. Salt draws out a large amount of liquid from the tomatoes and onions. Draining it thoroughly before cooking keeps the pickle from being diluted and helps the vegetables stay firm rather than watery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, mustard, sugar, allspice, clove, cinnamon. 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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