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Lilly Pickle

A pickle of green tomatoes, onions, mustard seeds, peppercorns, dry mustard, and vinegar, preserved in a stone jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lilly Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Layer sliced green tomatoes and onions in a stone jar, starting with a two-inch layer of tomatoes followed by a layer of onions, until the jar is full.

  2. Cover the tomatoes with water and add 1 pint of salt. Let it sit overnight.

  3. Drain the brine carefully.

Pickle and seal

  1. Mix the drained tomatoes with ½ cup white mustard seed, 2 tablespoons peppercorns, and 2 tablespoons dry mustard mixed with a little vinegar. Add enough vinegar to cover the mixture.

  2. Seal the jar in a pot of boiling water for about an hour.

  3. Once cooled, transfer the pickle to smaller jars. Seal tightly.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and soften as they cure in salt.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions, firming them and preserving the pickle.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during pickling.
Dry mustard
Contributes pungency and heat that deepens with vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavour.

The step that matters

Draining the brine carefully. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes and onions. Pouring off the brine gently and draining well keeps the pieces firm and stops excess salt and liquid from diluting the vinegar that preserves the pickle.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, mustard, vinegar. 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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