Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Tomato Soy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and salt
Chop the tomatoes and onions finely.
In a large bowl, combine the chopped tomatoes and onions with 1 cup of coarse sea salt; let stand for 24 hours.
Cook and bottle
Drain the mixture and add the chopped green peppers, mustard seed, sugar, and spices to taste.
Moisten the mixture with vinegar and cook until tender.
Before bottling, add the chopped cabbages and 1 cup of chopped horseradish.
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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Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,832 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together481 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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 into a tender, spoonable texture when cooked.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions, firming them and reducing the liquid that would dilute the pickle.
- Vinegar
- Adds sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps keep it stable.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and horseradish.
- Mustard seed
- Contributes pungent, earthy flavor that stands out within the sweet-sour mixture.
- Cabbages
- Add bulk and a crisp bite that holds some texture after cooking.
The step that matters
Salting the tomatoes and onions for 24 hours. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables by osmosis. Drawing this moisture out firms their texture and prevents a watery, diluted pickle once it is cooked with vinegar.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, mustard, sugar, cabbage, vinegar, horseradish):
- Broccolifits better
- Radishfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, mustard, sugar, cabbage, vinegar, horseradish. 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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