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Katy Rice

A preserved mixture of corn, green tomatoes, peppers, and spices boiled for several hours.

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

Katy Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

  1. Boil corn on the ear, then cut it off.

  2. Mix 3 pints of corn with ½ cup coarse sea salt and press down in a jar. Wipe off any scum from the corn and sides of the jar occasionally.

  3. To use, soak the corn overnight. In the morning, change the water and heat gradually on the stove.

  4. Change the water again, then cook the corn, adding 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Salt the tomatoes

  1. For the tomatoes, sprinkle ½ cup coarse sea salt over sliced green tomatoes and let stand overnight.

Cook and finish

  1. In the morning, pour off the water, add the other ingredients, and boil in a kettle for 6 to 8 hours.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  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

Corn
Forms the bulk of the pickle and provides its sweet, tender body.
Green tomatoes
Supply the main bulk and a tart acidity that balances the sugar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out water and preserves the corn and tomatoes through the salting stage.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.
Green peppers
Add fresh, vegetal bite and extra body to the pickle.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma to the pickle.

The step that matters

Soaking and salting the corn. Salt draws water out of the corn and changes its texture; soaking and changing the water removes excess salt so the pickle is not overly salty. Skipping the water changes leaves it too salty.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, sugar, pepper, clove, allspice, cinnamon, mustard):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, sugar, pepper, clove, allspice, cinnamon, mustard. 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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