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Tomato Soy

A pickled tomato condiment with mustard, pepper, allspice, onions, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Tomato Soy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Slice the tomatoes and sprinkle the salt over them.

  2. Let them stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain the tomatoes and place them in a porcelain-lined kettle with the onions and spices.

Cook

  1. Cover with cold vinegar and boil until perfectly soft, stirring often to prevent burning.

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. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the main bulk of the pickle and soften into a tender, spoonable texture when boiled.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the tomatoes during the long standing, firming the slices before cooking.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during cooking and gives the pickle its characteristic bite.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens the overall flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling until perfectly soft while stirring often. Tomatoes and sugars in the mixture can scorch on the bottom of the kettle as liquid reduces. Frequent stirring spreads heat evenly, prevents burning, and lets the vegetables soften fully and absorb the vinegar and spices.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, pepper, allspice, onion, 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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