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Gkeen Tomatoes

A pickled green tomato relish with peppers, onions, horseradish, mustard seed, black pepper, cloves, allspice, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Gkeen Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green tomatoes finely and press them to remove as much moisture as possible.

  2. Chop the peppers and onions.

Pickle

  1. In a jar, combine the chopped tomatoes, peppers, onions, grated horseradish, mustard seed, black pepper, cloves, and allspice.

  2. Cover the mixture with cold vinegar.

  3. Seal the jar and store it in a cool 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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 bulk and firm texture that holds up to pickling.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
Horseradish
Adds pungent heat and sharpness that mellows during storage.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour and a slight crunch.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma to the pickle.

The step that matters

Pressing the chopped tomatoes. Removing as much moisture as possible helps the tomatoes stay firm and keeps excess water from diluting the vinegar, which would weaken the pickle's acidity and flavour.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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