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Green Tomato Pickles

Pickled green tomatoes with onions, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, mustard seed, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the green tomatoes and onions.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the tomatoes are clear and tender.

Jar

  1. Transfer to glass jars and seal while hot.

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. Mustard + allspicetop 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle and soften into a tender, chunky texture when cooked.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften into the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness with sweetness and adds a molasses-like depth.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that stands up to the sweetness and acidity.

The step that matters

Cook until the tomatoes are clear and tender. Green tomatoes are firm and starchy when raw. They need enough cooking time in the vinegar and sugar syrup to soften fully and absorb the flavors. Stopping early leaves them hard and underseasoned.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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