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Spiced Tomatos

A preserved tomato relish made with tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Spiced Tomatos

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes.

  2. Combine vinegar and sugar in a pot to make a syrup.

  3. Pour the syrup over the tomatoes and let sit overnight.

Cook

  1. Strain the syrup.

  2. Heat the syrup.

  3. Pour the syrup over the tomatoes again.

  4. Combine everything in a kettle.

  5. Add the spices.

  6. Boil slowly for 1 hour or until thickened.

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

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 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

Tomatoes
Make up the bulk and body of the relish as they soften and break down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps keep it stable.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acid and thickens as the syrup concentrates.
Spices
Provide the aroma and warm flavor that define the relish.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 1 hour or until thickened. A gentle simmer evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and vinegar, which is what thickens the relish. Boiling too hard can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pot, while stopping too early leaves it runny.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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