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Chopped Pickle

A relish of chopped green tomatoes, onions, peppers, and spices pickled in vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Chopped Pickle

Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Chopped Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the water from the tomatoes while chopping.

  2. Put the cloves and allspice in a spice bag, reserving the mustard seed.

Make and serve

  1. Mix all ingredients together, including the mustard seed, and stir for two hours.

  2. Serve with cold meat.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + allspicetop 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
Form the bulk of the pickle and provide its chunky, tender texture.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma, and soften as they stew in the vinegar.
Green peppers
Contribute crisp-tender texture and a fresh, grassy bite.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the pickle.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
White mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp flavour that deepens as the pickle sits.

The step that matters

Drain the water from the tomatoes while chopping. Excess water from the tomatoes dilutes the vinegar and sugar mixture, weakening the flavour and making the pickle softer and less stable.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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