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Green Tomato Pickle

A pickled green tomato recipe using salt, vinegar, water, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Slice and soak the tomatoes in salt and water overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain the tomatoes and scald them in half vinegar and half water until tender.

  3. If desired, add the small onions while scalding.

Spice and seal

  1. Meanwhile, scald 3 cups of sugar and 1 quart of vinegar with spices in a bag.

  2. Once the tomatoes are tender, pour off the vinegar and water, then add the hot, spiced vinegar.

  3. Seal the mixture in jars.

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

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

  2. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the main body of the pickle, becoming tender when scalded in vinegar.
Vinegar
Supplies the sharp acidity that preserves and flavours the pickle.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the sliced tomatoes during the overnight soak, firming their texture.

The step that matters

Pouring off the vinegar and water before adding the spiced vinegar. Tomatoes must be fully tender before this step, because the spiced vinegar is added to them once. If they are not yet soft, the pickle will stay firm and the flavour will not fully penetrate the fruit.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, sugar. 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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