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 ↓
Green Tomatoes Pickled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the green tomatoes and mix with salt; let stand overnight.
In the morning, drain off the salt.
Pickle and cook
Add the chopped onions, green peppers, mustard seed, ground cloves, allspice, and cayenne pepper.
Cover the mixture with vinegar and simmer until tender.
Do not add the spices and mustard seed until the mixture is cool.
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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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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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 tender pieces during simmering.
- Vinegar
- Adds sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps keep it stable.
- Onions
- Add savory depth and body as they soften in the simmering liquid.
- Green peppers
- Contribute fresh, vegetal flavor and a little texture to the mixture.
- Mustard seed
- Provides pungent, sharp flavor that carries through the pickle.
- Ground cloves
- Add warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickle.
The step that matters
Do not add the spices and mustard seed until the mixture is cool.. Heat drives off the volatile aromatic compounds in cloves, allspice and mustard, so adding them after the mixture cools helps keep more of their flavor in the finished pickle.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, mustard, clove, allspice, vinegar):
- Horseradishfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, mustard, clove, allspice, 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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