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Green Tomato Soy

A pickled green tomato relish with cloves, onions, allspice, sugar, mustard, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Green Tomato Soy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes but do not peel them.

  2. Peel and slice the onions.

Cook and seal

  1. Mix all the ingredients together.

  2. Boil gently, stirring frequently until tender.

  3. Bottle and seal the mixture.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clove + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Forms the bulk of the relish and softens into its thick body as it cooks.
Onions
Adds savory flavor and body, and softens into the relish during simmering.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and helps preserve the relish by binding water.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the relish.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.

The step that matters

Boil gently, stirring frequently until tender. Sugar and cut vegetables can scorch on the bottom of the pan if left unattended. Gentle simmering with frequent stirring prevents burning and lets the tomatoes and onions soften evenly into a thick, uniform relish.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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