Why it works: Onion and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,784 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Whole Ripe Tomato Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Place the tomatoes in strong brine for 3 to 4 days.
Layer the tomatoes in jars with small onions and pieces of horseradish.
Pour cold vinegar over the layers, spiced if desired.
Cover the jars and store in a cellar for 1 month before using.
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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Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,784 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Horseradish + vinegartop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + horseradishtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together415 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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 (onion, horseradish, vinegar):
- Mustardfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Radishfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, horseradish, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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