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Dessert

Tomato Marmalade

A sweet and tangy preserve made by cooking tomatoes with vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices until reduced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Tomato Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the tomatoes, cider vinegar, sugar, salt, and mixed spices in a pot.

  2. Cook slowly over low heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon.

  3. Continue cooking until the mixture reduces to just under half its original volume.

  4. Transfer to tumblers and cover with brandied paper.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + cidertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together524 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the marmalade as they break down and thicken during cooking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture as the water evaporates.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking until reduced to just under half volume. Cooking slowly over low heat and stopping at the right point concentrates the sugar and pectin-free tomato pulp into a thick spread. Too little reduction leaves it runny, while overcooking can scorch the sugars and make it overly dark and stiff as it cools.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, sugar. 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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