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Sweet 'green Tomato Pickles

A pickled green tomato recipe with sweet and spice flavors.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Sweet 'green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the green tomatoes and sprinkle with salt.

  2. Let them stand overnight.

  3. Drain the tomatoes from the brine.

Cook

  1. Combine the tomatoes with vinegar, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and black pepper in a kettle.

  2. Boil until the tomatoes are tender.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 and, once cooked, the tender texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the sliced tomatoes, firming them before they are cooked.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp tang.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the syrup that the tomatoes cook in.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Boil until the tomatoes are tender. Green tomatoes stay firm and starchy if underdone, while overcooking makes them collapse into mush. Checking tenderness by eye and fork keeps the slices intact while the syrup thickens.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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