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Tomato Pickle

Pickled tomatoes with onions, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Layer sliced tomatoes and onions in a jar, sprinkling with salt.

  2. Let sit overnight.

  3. Drain the mixture well.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. In a separate jar, combine black pepper, allspice, cloves, mustard, and green peppers. Mix well.

  2. Cover the spice mixture with hot vinegar.

Combine and finish

  1. Cook the tomatoes and onions until soft.

  2. Drain again.

  3. Combine the cooked tomatoes and onions with the spiced vinegar.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 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. Onion + mustardtop 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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle and release moisture that the salt draws out.
Onions
Add sharpness and savory depth that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions, firming them and concentrating flavor.
Hot vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tangy bite.
Ground mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavor that carries into the vinegar.

The step that matters

Drain the salted vegetables well. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes and onions overnight. Leftover liquid dilutes the hot vinegar and leaves the pickle watery and less tangy, so thorough draining matters before the vinegar is added.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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