Name: 60 Spiced Tomatoes
Ingredients: 1 peck tomatoes; 1 pound brown sugar; 1 pint vinegar; 2 teaspoons mace; 1 tablespoon cloves; 1 tablespoon allspice

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 ↓

60 Spiced Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the tomatoes and place them in a pot.
As they boil, pour off excess water to prevent them from becoming watery.
Add brown sugar, vinegar, mace, cloves, and allspice.
Boil for one hour or until fully cooked.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,189 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,474 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Tomato + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together670 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Supplies the bulk and juice that cook down into the sauce.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses deepens the color and flavor.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the cooked mixture.
Mace: Adds a warm, nutmeg-like aroma to the spiced sauce.
Cloves: Contributes a strong, warm aroma; only small amounts are needed.
Allspice: Adds a warm, peppery-sweet aroma that blends the other spices.

The step that matters

Pour off excess water as the tomatoes boil. Tomatoes release a lot of liquid when heated. Removing the excess early keeps the sauce from becoming watery and lets the flavors concentrate as it cooks.

Swap the tomato

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

Mustardfits better
Capsicumfits better
Horseradishfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, mace, 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.

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60 Spiced Tomatoes