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Chopped Pickles

A pickled relish of chopped green tomatoes, onions, cabbage, peppers, and spices, preserved in vinegar.

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

Chopped Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the tomatoes and let them stand overnight.

  2. Sprinkle a handful of coarse sea salt over the tomatoes and press out all the water.

  3. Chop the tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and green peppers.

Cook the pickles

  1. Mix the chopped vegetables with all other ingredients.

  2. Cook in enough vinegar to cover until the tomatoes look clear.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Turmeric + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 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
Form the bulk of the pickle; salting draws out water so they stay firm.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and body to the pickle mass.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk that holds texture during long cooking.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during cooking.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of vinegar and tomatoes with sweetness.
Green peppers
Contribute fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavour and bulk.

The step that matters

Cook in vinegar until the tomatoes look clear. Cooking too briefly leaves tomatoes opaque and raw-tasting, while overcooking turns them soft and mushy. Watching for clarity signals that the pieces have softened and absorbed the vinegar and spices evenly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, cabbage, mustard, turmeric, celery, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, cabbage, mustard, turmeric, celery, cinnamon, clove. 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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