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Greex Tomato Pickles

Pickled tomatoes and onions with vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Greex Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle the salt over the sliced onions and tomatoes.

  2. Let the mixture stand overnight.

Cook

  1. Drain the mixture well and scald it in weak vinegar.

  2. Drain again and cook with the vinegar, sugar, curry powder, cloves, allspice, and mustard.

  3. Stir often while cooking.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clove + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and supply moisture that the salt draws out overnight.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions, softening them and concentrating their flavour.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the pickle and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Balances the acidity and helps build a thick, glossy body as the mixture cooks down.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and body that softens during cooking.

The step that matters

Stir often while cooking. The mixture is high in sugar and can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Frequent stirring keeps heat even and prevents burnt flavour and sticking as the liquid reduces.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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