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Spiced Tomatoes

A preserved tomato condiment made with sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the vinegar and spices together for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the tomatoes and cook slowly until the mixture thickens.

  3. Store in sealed 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main bulk and body, breaking down into the thickened mixture as they cook.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture as it cooks down, and acts as a preservative.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and sharpens the spiced flavour.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until the mixture thickens. Cooking gently lets the tomatoes break down and the liquid reduce evenly, so the mixture thickens without scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, 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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