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Green Tomatoes

A pickled green tomato relish with onions and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Green Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle sliced green tomatoes with salt and let stand overnight.

Pack and cook

  1. Layer the tomatoes and sliced onions in a jar with the spices.

  2. Boil the mixture in vinegar to cover for 2 hours.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the main bulk and a firm, tart texture once pickled.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they soften in the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during long simmering.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and a molasses note.
Ground mustard
Adds pungency and body to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture in vinegar for 2 hours. Long simmering lets the vinegar penetrate the tomatoes and softens the spices so flavours blend. Too short a boil leaves the tomatoes raw-tasting and the spices harsh, while the vinegar must fully cover the contents so nothing is left exposed.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, mustard, clove, allspice, ginger, pepper, cinnamon):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, clove, allspice, ginger, pepper, cinnamon. 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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