Name: Plum Tomato Sweet Pickle
Ingredients: 7 lbs yellow plum tomatoes; 4 lbs granulated sugar; 1 pint vinegar; 2 oz mixed spice (white)

Why it works: Plum and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,480 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Plum Tomato Sweet Pickle

Ingredients

7 lbs yellow plum tomatoes
4 lbs granulated sugar
1 pint vinegar
2 oz mixed spice (white)

Directions

In a pot, boil the vinegar and sugar together.
Add the yellow plum tomatoes and cook until 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.

Plum + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,480 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Plum + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,063 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,313 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow plum tomatoes: Form the bulk of the pickle and soften into a tender, moist body as they cook.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and thickens the liquid into a syrup that coats the tomatoes.
Vinegar: Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the pickle.
Mixed spice: Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the syrup and tomatoes.