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Green Tomato Pickle

A pickle of sliced green tomatoes with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Green Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes very thin and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let them stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain off the juice and add the black pepper, mustard seed, green peppers, ground cloves, onions, and allspice.

Cook and seal

  1. Put the mixture in a kettle and cover with vinegar.

  2. Cook until tender.

  3. Seal the jars while hot.

  4. Optionally, add a little chopped red pepper for color.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 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
Form the bulk of the pickle; salting draws out water so they stay firmer.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that mellows as it cooks in the vinegar.
Onions
Become sweet and mellow when cooked, adding depth and aroma.
Green peppers
Add bulk and a fresh, slightly grassy flavour that softens during cooking.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the tomatoes. Salt draws water out of the sliced tomatoes by osmosis, firming them and reducing liquid that would dilute the vinegar. Drain the juice well before adding the other ingredients so the pickle stays firm and flavourful.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, clove, onion, 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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