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 ↓
Tomato Soy
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the green tomatoes and green peppers finely.
Mix in the fine salt thoroughly.
Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.
Drain off the brine.
Spice the mixture with cinnamon and cloves to taste.
Pack the mixture into a jar.
Cover with hot vinegar in which the spices have been boiled.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,890 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,348 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cinnamon, clove, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cinnamon, clove, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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