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Ripe Tomato Pickles

Pickled ripe tomatoes with mustard seed, red pepper, vinegar, and salt.

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 ↓

Ripe Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash the tomatoes and prick them with a large needle.

  2. Soak the tomatoes in cold water with enough salt to dissolve for one week.

  3. After a week, wash the tomatoes in cold water and drain them overnight.

Pack and store

  1. In an earthen jar, layer the tomatoes with mustard seed and chopped red pepper pods.

  2. Cover the tomatoes with cold vinegar and seal the jar.

  3. Store the jar in a cool, dark place.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body of the pickle, softening and absorbing the brine and vinegar flavours.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that develops as the pickle matures.
Red pepper pods
Add heat and a fresh, sharp bite to the pickled tomatoes.
Cold vinegar
Acidifies the jar, preserving the tomatoes and giving the pickle its tang.

The step that matters

Soaking the tomatoes in salted water. Salt must fully dissolve so the brine is strong enough to draw water out of the tomatoes and firm their flesh. Weak brine can let the tomatoes soften or spoil during the week-long soak.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, 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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