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Spiced Tomatoes

A sweet and spiced tomato preparation simmered with sugar, vinegar, mace, cloves, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spiced Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the tomatoes.

Cook

  1. Place the tomatoes in a pot and bring to a boil.

  2. As they begin to boil, pour off the juice to prevent them from being watery.

  3. Add the brown sugar, vinegar, mace, cloves, and cinnamon.

  4. Cook until perfectly done, about one hour.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,348 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the body of the dish; their juice is poured off to keep it from becoming watery.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps build a thick, glossy syrup as the mixture cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and gives the preserve its tang.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, pungent spice aroma to the cooked tomatoes.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet spice aroma that complements the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Pouring off the juice as the tomatoes begin to boil. Tomatoes release a lot of liquid when heated. Removing some of it early keeps the mixture from becoming watery, so the sugar and vinegar can thicken it rather than diluting it during the long cook.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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