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Tomato Soy

A preserved tomato, onion, olive, almond, and red pepper relish with mayonnaise, stewed and jarred for long-term storage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tomato Soy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the relish

  1. Combine sliced tomatoes, onions, olives, almonds, red pepper, and mayonnaise in a preserving kettle.

  2. Stew the mixture until tender, stirring often.

Jar and rest

  1. Transfer to jars and seal.

  2. Let it sit for one month before using.

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 + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Olive + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 moisture, which soften and thicken into the relish as they stew.
Ripe olives
Add salty, briny flavour and a meaty texture that holds up during stewing.
Onion
Adds aromatic sharpness that mellows and sweetens as it cooks down.
Blanched almonds
Contribute crunch and a nutty richness that contrasts with the soft stewed vegetables.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess, binding the chopped ingredients into a smooth, cohesive mixture.

The step that matters

Stewing until tender. Stirring often keeps the mixture from scorching on the bottom of the kettle, and cooking until tender softens the vegetables and concentrates their flavour. Mayonnaise is an emulsion that can separate or turn greasy under prolonged high heat, so the heat should stay gentle.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, onion, olive, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, olive, pepper. 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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