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Soup

Tomato Chowder

A preserved tomato mixture made with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, salt, and vinegar, then cooked and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the chopped tomatoes, onions, and green peppers in a large bowl.

  2. Sprinkle with 1 pint of coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

Cook and pack

  1. Pour off the brine and cover the mixture with good vinegar.

  2. Cook slowly for 1 hour, then drain.

  3. Pack the mixture into jars.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 chowder and supply its tart, fresh base flavour.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma as they soften during slow cooking.
Green peppers
Contribute a grassy, slightly bitter note and some body to the mixture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables through osmosis, firming them and concentrating flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Sprinkling with salt and standing overnight. Salt draws moisture out of the chopped vegetables by osmosis. Pouring off that brine before cooking removes excess water, so the chowder thickens instead of turning watery and diluted.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar. 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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