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Turmeric Pickles

A pickled tomato and onion relish flavored with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ↓

Turmeric Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Layer the sliced tomatoes and onions in a stone jar, sprinkling each layer lightly with coarse sea salt.

  2. Place a weight on top and let them stand for 12 hours.

  3. Drain the mixture and transfer it to a porcelain kettle.

  4. Sprinkle the mustard seed over the tomatoes and onions.

Make the spice liquor

  1. In a bowl, mix the sugar, cayenne pepper, mace, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, curry powder, turmeric, and celery seed with a little cold vinegar until smooth.

  2. Add enough vinegar to the mixture to make 1 gallon.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture over the tomatoes and onions, adding strips of horseradish.

  2. Stew everything together until the tomatoes turn bright yellow, stirring with a wooden spoon.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 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
Provide the bulk of the pickle and absorb the spiced vinegar as they cook.
Onions
Add savory flavor and body, softening as they stew in the vinegar.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavor.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent bite and a gentle texture to the pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its bright yellow color and an earthy flavor.

The step that matters

Stew until the tomatoes turn bright yellow. Stewing must be gentle and stirred often so the spices bond with the vinegar and the tomatoes cook through without scorching on the bottom of the kettle.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, mustard, sugar, pepper, allspice, clove. 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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