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Green Tomato Pickles

Pickled green tomatoes with onions in a seasoned vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Strew 1 cup of coarse sea salt over the sliced tomatoes and onions, and let them stand overnight.

  2. Drain the mixture.

  3. Boil the tomatoes and onions in 1 quart of vinegar and 2 quarts of water for 10 minutes, then drain again.

Make the spiced syrup

  1. Combine 2 quarts of vinegar, 2 pounds of brown sugar, ground cloves, ground mustard, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and red pepper in a pot.

  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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 tender pieces during cooking.
Onions
Add savory flavor and body that blends into the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions, firming them and reducing excess liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Draining after the salt soak. Salt pulls moisture from the vegetables overnight. Draining and rinsing off excess salt before boiling keeps the pickle from tasting harsh and helps it hold a firm texture.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, sugar, clove, mustard, cinnamon, ginger. 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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