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Tomato Mustard

A tomato-based mustard condiment made by boiling tomatoes, onions, peppers, and garlic, then seasoning with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the tomatoes, onions, red peppers, and garlic for 1 hour.

  2. Add salt, black pepper, ginger, allspice, mace, and cloves; boil for another hour.

  3. When cold, stir in vinegar and mustard.

  4. If desired, add cayenne for extra heat.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide moisture and body as they cook down.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften during the long boil.
Red peppers
Contribute sweetness, colour and body to the cooked base.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the sauce.
Mustard
Adds pungent flavour and sharpness that define the condiment.
Salt
Seasons the base and draws out moisture from the vegetables.

The step that matters

Stirring in the vinegar and mustard when cold. Vinegar's sharp acidity and mustard's pungent compounds are volatile and fade with prolonged heat, so adding them after cooling keeps their bright, sharp flavour in the finished sauce.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, onion, pepper, clove, garlic, ginger, allspice):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, pepper, clove, garlic, ginger, allspice. 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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