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Pickled Tomatoes

Pickled tomatoes are green tomatoes preserved in a vinegar and spice mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Pickled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Sprinkle sliced tomatoes with coarse sea salt and let them sit for 2 days.

  2. Drain the tomatoes.

Assemble and cook

  1. Mix the mustard, mustard seed, allspice, cloves, and pepper together.

  2. In a kettle, layer the tomatoes, onions, and spice mixture.

  3. Cover with vinegar and cook slowly until the tomatoes look clear.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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
Form the bulk of the pickle and soften into a tender, translucent texture when cooked slowly.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the sliced tomatoes, firming them before they are drained.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory body that mellows as they cook in the vinegar.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavor that infuses the vinegar during slow cooking.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the mixture and sharpens the overall flavor.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until the tomatoes look clear. Slow cooking lets the vinegar and spices penetrate the tomato slices and soften them evenly. Cooking too fast or too hot can break the tomatoes down unevenly before they turn translucent.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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