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Green Tomato Pickles

Pickled green tomatoes preserved with salt and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,063 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the tomatoes

  1. Slice the green tomatoes and cover them with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let them stand for two days.

Pickle

  1. Drain the tomatoes and pour hot vinegar over them.

  2. Let them stand for five days.

  3. Pour off the vinegar.

Finish and rest

  1. Heat fresh vinegar with spices.

  2. Pour the heated vinegar over the pickles.

  3. They will be ready for use in one to two weeks.

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. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 and firm texture of the pickles.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the tomatoes, firming them and preparing them to take up flavour.
Hot vinegar
Acidifies the tomatoes, preserving them and sharpening their flavour.
Fresh vinegar
Supplies the acidic brine that carries the spices and sets the final tangy flavour.

The step that matters

Draining off the vinegar before adding the fresh vinegar. Leaving the first vinegar in place would dilute the new brine and change the balance of acidity and salt. Pouring it off, then adding freshly heated vinegar with spices, keeps the flavour consistent and the pickles firm.

“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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