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Sweet Vegetable Pickles

A pickled vegetable mixture of tomatoes, onions, and green peppers sweetened with sugar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Sweet Vegetable Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash and dry the tomatoes, then cut them into thin slices.

  2. Peel the onions and cut them as desired.

  3. Cut the green peppers into small pieces.

  4. In a large pan, layer the tomato slices and sprinkle with salt.

  5. Let the tomatoes sit for 24 hours.

  6. Drain the liquid, pressing down on the cover to remove excess moisture.

Cook and pack

  1. In a preserving kettle, combine the drained vegetables and cover with vinegar.

  2. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and mustard seed to the kettle.

  3. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes.

  4. Transfer the mixture to pots or 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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, once salted, release moisture that keeps the texture firm.
Onions
Add savory bulk and aroma that balance the sweetness of the sugar and spices.
Fine salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes during the long rest, concentrating flavor and firming the vegetables.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses note that balances the vinegar's acidity.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Draining the salted tomatoes. Salt draws out water over 24 hours. If the liquid is not fully drained and pressed out, the excess moisture dilutes the vinegar and sugar syrup, leaving the pickle watery and less firm.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, cinnamon, clove, mustard, 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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