Skip to main content

Ripe Tomato Pickle

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Ripe Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash the tomatoes in cold water and prick them with a coarse needle.

  2. Pack the tomatoes tightly in a stone jar until full.

  3. Heat enough cider vinegar to cover the tomatoes until boiling, then pour it over them.

  4. Cover a piece of smooth brown paper with the egg white, then place it egg side down in the jar.

  5. Pinch the edges of the paper closed and secure it tightly with string.

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

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

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

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

  4. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cider + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes