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French Tomato Pickle

A pickled tomato and onion mixture seasoned with salt, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

French Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle salt over the sliced tomatoes and onions and let them sit overnight.

Scald and simmer

  1. Drain the mixture well and scald in weak vinegar for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Drain again and scald with strong vinegar, sugar, curry powder, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and mustard.

  3. Simmer all together slowly for a few minutes.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Turmeric + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Turmeric + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 soften as they cook in the vinegar.
Onions
Add savoury body and moisture that blends into the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions, firming them before scalding.
Strong vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Curry powder
Contributes warm spice aroma that defines the flavour of this pickle.

The step that matters

Drain the salted mixture well before scalding. Salt draws out water overnight, and any moisture left behind dilutes the vinegar and softens the pickle. Thorough draining keeps the vinegar strong and the texture firmer.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, sugar, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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