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Piccalilli

A pickled relish made from green tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, onions, molasses, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Piccalilli

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Slice the green tomatoes thinly.

  2. Add the salt.

  3. Cover with cold water.

  4. Let stand for 24 hours.

  5. Chop the cabbage very fine.

  6. Chop the onions very fine, if using.

  7. Chop the green peppers very fine.

  8. Drain the tomatoes through a sieve.

Combine

  1. Cover the tomatoes with hot vinegar.

  2. Add the molasses.

  3. Add the cloves.

  4. Add the allspice.

  5. Add the mustard seed.

  6. Cover with cold vinegar.

  7. In a porcelain kettle, layer the tomatoes.

  8. Sprinkle salt over the tomatoes.

  9. Let the tomatoes sit overnight.

  10. Press dry through a sieve in the morning.

  11. Cover with vinegar.

Cook

  1. Add sugar.

  2. Add spices in a muslin bag.

  3. Stew slowly for about an hour, or until the tomatoes are as soft as desired.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Forms the bulk of the pickle; salting and pressing remove water so it stays thick rather than runny.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and body; fine chopping lets it blend evenly into the pickle.
Green peppers
Add fresh, slightly bitter flavour and texture to the mixture.
Molasses
Adds dark colour and deep, rich sweetness with some bitterness.
Vinegar
Provides sharp acidity that preserves the pickle and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Pressing the salted tomatoes dry. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes overnight. If they are not pressed dry in the morning, the extra liquid dilutes the vinegar, so the pickle turns out watery and less sharp.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cabbage, pepper, vinegar, molasses, clove, allspice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, pepper, vinegar, molasses, clove, 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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