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Green Tomato Pickles

Pickled green tomatoes prepared with a two-syrup brine and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the tomatoes

  1. Slice the green tomatoes into three or four slices, discarding a thin slice from each end.

  2. Layer the sliced tomatoes in a jar, sprinkling coarse sea salt between each layer.

  3. Place a weight on top and let them sit overnight.

  4. In the morning, drain the tomatoes through a colander.

Make the syrups and pickle

  1. For the first syrup, combine 3 quarts of water, 2 cups of cider vinegar, and 1 cup of brown sugar in a pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the tomatoes in batches and let them simmer for a few minutes, then strain through a colander.

  3. For the second syrup, combine 2 quarts of water, 1 quart of cider vinegar, 2 cups of sugar, and 1 tablespoon each of cloves and cinnamon in a pot.

  4. Place the spices in a thin muslin bag and heat the syrup until boiling.

  5. Add the tomatoes in batches and boil for 15 minutes.

  6. Transfer the tomatoes to a stone jar and store in a cool place. They will be ready to use in a few days.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,348 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Main ingredient; salting and simmering soften the firm flesh so it takes up the syrup.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomato slices, firming them and seasoning them before pickling.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that makes the pickling liquid sharp and preserves the tomatoes.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses note to the first syrup, balancing the vinegar's sharpness.
Sugar
Sweetens the second syrup, balancing the vinegar and spices.

The step that matters

Draining and simmering the salted tomatoes in the first syrup. Salt pulls water out overnight, so the slices must be drained well before going into the syrup; otherwise the liquid is diluted. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the slices intact while they absorb the sweet-sour syrup.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, sugar, syrup, clove, cinnamon. 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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