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Tomato Pickle

A pickled green tomato and pepper relish with vinegar, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Salt the tomatoes and onions overnight.

  2. The next morning, drain the water from them.

Cook and seal

  1. Boil the vinegar with the other ingredients, adding the tomatoes and onions.

  2. Cook for about 20 minutes.

  3. Put into jars and seal.

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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
Provide the bulk of the pickle; salting first draws out water so they stay firmer.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma that mellows during the cooking.
Vinegar
Supplies the acidity that sharpens the pickle and helps preserve it in jars.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavor that carries through the cooked pickle.
Sweet peppers
Add mild sweetness and bulk to the mix.

The step that matters

Drain the salted tomatoes and onions. Salting draws water out of the vegetables. Any liquid left behind dilutes the vinegar and brine, weakening the acidity and softening the texture of the pickle.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, mustard, allspice, pepper, vinegar, onion, sugar. 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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