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Spiced Tomatoes

A preserved tomato dish flavored with sugar, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced tomatoes

  1. Boil the vinegar and spices together for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the tomatoes and cook slowly until the mixture thickens.

Store

  1. Store in sealed jars.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk and moisture that cook down into a thick, spreadable mixture.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture as water evaporates.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma and flavour to the tomatoes.
Whole cloves
Contribute a strong, pungent aroma as they steep in the hot vinegar.
Allspice
Adds a warm, peppery aroma that rounds out the other spices.

The step that matters

Cook the tomatoes slowly until thickened. Thickening happens as water evaporates and sugar concentrates. Sugar-rich mixtures can scorch on the base if the heat is too high, while low heat may leave the mixture too thin.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, 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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