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Green Tomato Soy

A pickled green tomato relish made with tomatoes, onions, vinegar, mustard, spices, and sugar.

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 ↓

Green Tomato Soy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Layer tomatoes and onions in a large stone jar, sprinkling coarse sea salt on each layer.

  2. Slice tomatoes and onions.

  3. Let stand overnight.

  4. Drain off the water.

Make the pickle

  1. Cover with good cider vinegar.

  2. Add mustard, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, black mustard seed, and white mustard seed.

  3. Mix all ingredients together.

  4. Stew until tender, stirring often to prevent scorching.

  5. Seal in small glass 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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 soften into a tender, spoonable texture when stewed.
Onions
Add savory bulk and sweetness that mellows during stewing.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp tang.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp flavour that deepens as the pickle cooks.

The step that matters

Stew until tender, stirring often. Green tomatoes and sugar-rich liquids scorch easily on the bottom of the pot, which gives a burnt taste. Frequent stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the pickle from sticking while the vegetables soften.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cider, vinegar, mustard, pepper, cinnamon, 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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