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Gueen Tomato Pickles

A pickled tomato and onion relish seasoned with mustard, pepper, cloves, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Gueen Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Layer sliced tomatoes and onions in a basin, sprinkling coarse sea salt between layers.

  2. Let stand overnight.

  3. Drain off the water the next day.

Pack and pickle

  1. Layer tomatoes, onions, and spices alternately in a jar.

  2. Cover with vinegar and boil for 20 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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. Mustard + clovetop 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
Make up the bulk of the pickle and release water, which salting draws out.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and body that softens during the pickling.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that mellows in the vinegar.
Whole cloves
Contribute a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickle.
Whole black pepper
Adds mild heat and aromatic spice to the packed jar.

The step that matters

Draining after the overnight salting. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes and onions. If the liquid is not fully drained the pickle stays watery and dilutes the vinegar, so it tastes weaker and is less firm.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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