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Tomato Pickles

A pickled tomato relish made with tomatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, vinegar, mustard, spices, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and peppers.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Make up most of the bulk and moisture of the pickle.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a firm, crisp texture that holds up during cooking.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and cook down.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Sugar and chopped vegetables can scorch on the bottom of the pot if left unstirred. Stirring spreads the heat and keeps the mixture from sticking and burning.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cabbage, onion, pepper, vinegar, mustard, celery):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, onion, pepper, vinegar, mustard, celery. 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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