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Green Tomato

A pickled green tomato and onion relish flavored with spices, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Green Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Layer the sliced green tomatoes and sliced onions in a jar, sprinkling each layer with salt.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours, then drain the tomatoes and onions.

Season and cook

  1. Add the coriander seed, red pepper, lemon slices, English mustard, brown sugar, bruised white mustard seed, ginger, cloves, allspice, black pepper, and celery seed to the drained mixture.

  2. Layer the tomatoes and seasoning alternately in a skillet.

  3. Cover with strong vinegar and simmer briskly until the tomatoes are clear.

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. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Coriander + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Tomato + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 firm texture that softens during simmering.
Salt
Draws out moisture from the tomatoes and onions during the standing period.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and spices.
Strong vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
White mustard seed
Adds pungent flavor and a slight texture when bruised.

The step that matters

Simmer until the tomatoes are clear. Simmering briskly in vinegar softens the tomatoes and lets them take up the spices and sugar. Stopping too early leaves them firm and underseasoned, while overcooking turns them mushy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, coriander, pepper, lemon, mustard, sugar, ginger):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, coriander, pepper, lemon, mustard, sugar, ginger. 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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