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French Pickles

A pickled mixture of green tomatoes and onions in a seasoned vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

French Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Mix sliced green tomatoes and onions in a bowl, then sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let sit overnight.

  2. Drain the mixture.

  3. Boil the drained mixture in 1 quart vinegar and 2 quarts water for 15 minutes.

  4. Drain the mixture again.

Make the pickling syrup

  1. In a pot, combine 4 quarts vinegar, brown sugar, white mustard seed, ground allspice, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, and ground mustard.

  2. Boil the mixture for 15 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and soften into a tender, yielding texture when boiled.
Onions
Add savory flavor and body, softening during salting and boiling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables overnight, firming them and reducing their moisture.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves and flavors the pickle.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent bite that mellows during boiling.

The step that matters

Salting overnight and draining. Salt draws moisture out of the sliced vegetables. Draining thoroughly and boiling in the vinegar-water mix removes excess liquid and salt, so the pickle stays crisp-tender rather than watery or overly salty.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, sugar, mustard, allspice, cinnamon, clove. 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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