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Green Tomato Pickle

A pickled green tomato relish with onions and spices, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

1 peck (about 8 quarts) green tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Remove stems from the green tomatoes.

  2. Let the tomatoes stand in strong brine for 2 days. Change the brine daily.

  3. Drain off the brine.

Cook

  1. Add the sliced onions and mixed spices to the tomatoes.

  2. Nearly cover the mixture with vinegar.

  3. Cook gently on the back of the stove until slightly tender.

Jar and seal

  1. Fill glass pint jars.

  2. Stand the jars in boiling water to repel air.

  3. Screw on the covers.

  4. Remove from heat.

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. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 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
Form the bulk of the pickle and soften slightly during cooking and brining.
Onions
Add sweetness and body that mellows as the pickle cooks.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavour.
Mixed spices
Contribute aroma and warm flavour to the pickled mixture.

The step that matters

Standing the brined tomatoes for 2 days, changing the brine daily. Brining draws water out of the tomatoes and firms their texture. Fresh brine each day keeps the salt strength consistent so the tomatoes firm properly rather than soaking up brine unevenly or spoiling.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, 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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