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Green Tomato Pickle

A pickle made from chopped green tomatoes, cabbage, green peppers, and spices, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine chopped tomatoes and coarse sea salt in a large bowl and let it stand overnight.

  2. Drain the tomatoes and scald them in vinegar.

  3. Add cabbage, green peppers, cinnamon, and black pepper to the tomatoes and mix well.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,348 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together336 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
Salting draws out water, leaving the tomatoes firmer for pickling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the tomatoes, firming them and helping preserve the pickle.
Vinegar
Its acidity helps preserve the pickle and sharpens its flavor.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and crisp texture to the pickle.
Green peppers
Add crunch and a fresh, slightly sharp vegetable flavor.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the pickle.

The step that matters

Scalding the drained tomatoes in vinegar. Heat softens the tomato walls, so brief scalding is needed to keep the tomatoes from turning mushy. Draining well first keeps excess water from diluting the vinegar and weakening the pickle.

Swap the cinnamon

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

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

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