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Sweet Tomato Pickle

A pickled sweet tomato relish made with green tomatoes, peppers, onions, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the green tomatoes, green peppers, and raw onions.

  2. Layer them in earthen crocks, sprinkling salt between each layer.

  3. Let the mixture soak overnight, then drain off the liquid.

Cook

  1. Boil the mixture on the stove.

  2. Add ginger, cinnamon, sugar, and allspice to the pot.

  3. Cover with strong vinegar and boil until soft and brown.

Store

  1. Transfer to earthen jars for storage.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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
Make up most of the pickle and soften into a tender, spoonable texture as they boil.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and helps the pickle brown as it cooks.
Strong vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the pickle.
Raw onions
Add savoury bulk and mellow sweetness as they cook down.
Green peppers
Add body and a mild, fresh vegetal flavour.
Ginger
Contributes warm, spicy aroma that rounds out the sweet and sour notes.

The step that matters

Boiling until soft and brown. Sugar and vinegar thicken and darken slowly as the liquid reduces. Sugars can scorch on the base of the pot if left unattended, giving a bitter taste, while too short a boil leaves the vegetables firm and the flavours raw.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, allspice, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, allspice, 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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