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Spiced Tomatoes

A pickled green tomato dish preserved with vinegar, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Spiced Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the tomatoes

  1. Slice the green tomatoes thinly.

  2. Layer the tomatoes and salt in jars, alternating layers.

  3. Let the jars stand overnight.

Scald and pickle

  1. Remove the tomatoes and scald them in clear water.

  2. Drain the tomatoes thoroughly.

  3. Heat the cider vinegar and pour it over the tomatoes.

  4. Add sugar and spices to the hot vinegar.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the main bulk and provide the firm, tart flesh that the pickle is built around.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomato slices, firming their texture and reducing excess moisture.
Cider vinegar
Adds the sharp acidity that defines the pickle and keeps the flavour bright.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and helps form the syrupy liquid.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma that flavours the hot vinegar and tomatoes.
Cloves
Adds strong, pungent aroma that deepens the spiced character of the pickle.

The step that matters

Drain the tomatoes thoroughly. Any water left on the tomatoes dilutes the hot vinegar and sugar, weakening the acidity and flavour of the pickling liquid and making the tomatoes softer and less crisp.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove. 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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