Skip to main content
Main

French Pickles

Pickled tomatoes and onions in a vinegar and spice brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

French Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle salt over the sliced tomatoes and onions and let them stand overnight.

  2. Drain the mixture and add 2 quarts of water and 1 quart of vinegar.

  3. Boil for 20 minutes or until the tomatoes turn white, then drain again.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate pot, boil 4 quarts of vinegar with the other ingredients for 15 minutes.

Pack and store

  1. Put the mixture in jars, pour in the dressing, and cover with several layers of paper.

  2. Store in a cold place.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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

Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickles their tang and helps preserve them.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour to the dressing.
Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and soften into a tender texture after boiling.
Onions
Add bulk and a mild savoury flavour that mellows during boiling.
Ground allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the dressing.

The step that matters

Drain the salted vegetables thoroughly after boiling. Salting draws out water and the boil softens the vegetables. Leftover liquid dilutes the vinegar dressing, weakening its acidity and the pickle's ability to keep.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, mustard, allspice, clove, ginger, cinnamon):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, mustard, allspice, clove, ginger, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes