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Sweet Green Tomato Pickles

Sweet green tomatoes and onions pickled with vinegar, brown sugar, and whole spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sweet Green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the green tomatoes and white onions.

  2. Place them in a jar, sprinkling with a generous layer of coarse sea salt.

  3. Put a plate and weight on top.

  4. In the morning, drain off the liquid and rinse the tomatoes well with cold water.

Cook and jar

  1. Add enough vinegar to cover the tomatoes.

  2. Stir in the brown sugar and whole spices.

  3. Cook until tender, but not soft.

  4. Transfer to glass jars and seal.

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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 firm texture when cooked only until tender.
White onions
Add savory flavour and soften during cooking, adding body to the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture from the tomatoes and onions, helping them stay firm when cooked.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavour against the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Whole spices
Contribute aroma and warm flavour as they infuse into the vinegar and sugar syrup.

The step that matters

Cook until tender, but not soft. Overcooking breaks down the pectin and cell walls, turning the tomatoes mushy. Stopping when they are just tender keeps their shape and texture.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, sugar. 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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