Skip to main content
Main

Ripe Tomato Soy

A pickled tomato relish made with tomatoes, celery, onions, vinegar, spices, sugar, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ripe Tomato Soy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Combine tomatoes and salt in a bowl.

  2. Let stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain off the liquid.

Cook the pickle

  1. Add celery, onions, vinegar, mustard, ginger, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Stew the mixture slowly for 2 hours.

  3. When nearly done, stir in sugar and mustard seed.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and break down into a thick, spreadable texture.
Sea salt
Draws liquid out of the tomatoes, firming them and helping preserve the pickle.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the pickle.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and helps give the pickle body.
Onions
Add savoury depth and body as they soften during the long stew.

The step that matters

Stew the mixture slowly for 2 hours. Slow simmering lets the vegetables soften and the flavours blend without scorching on the bottom of the pot. Too much heat can burn the sugar and make the pickle bitter.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, onion, vinegar, mustard, ginger, clove, allspice. 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.

More tomato pickle recipes

Green 105Sweet 26French 6Frosted 4 See all 48 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes