Name: Pickled Tomatoes
Ingredients: Tomatoes (not overripe); Shallots; Pickled silver onions; Vinegar; Spices

Why it works: Shallot and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,431 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pickled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Wipe the tomatoes with a soft cloth.
Place the tomatoes in a jar with shallots and pickled silver onions.
Boil vinegar with a few spices and let it cool completely.
Pour the cooled vinegar over the tomatoes and seal the jar tightly.

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.

Shallot + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,374 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Tomato + shallottop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together583 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,226 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).