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Dessert

Green Tomato Mince Meat

A preserved fruit mixture of green tomatoes, sugar, raisins, currants, spices, suet, vinegar, and cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Green Tomato Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Chop the tomatoes finely and drain them.

  2. Put the tomatoes in a pot with cold water and bring to a boil, then drain.

  3. Repeat the boiling and draining process.

Cook the preserves

  1. In a large pot, combine the tomatoes, sugar, raisins, currants, chopped suet, and salt. Cook for one hour.

  2. Add the cider, vinegar, and spices. Bring to a boil.

  3. Seal the mixture hot in mason jars.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the preserve and a tart, firm body once cooked down.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and helps it thicken and keep as it cooks.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Currants
Add tart fruitiness and chewy texture.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, mellow mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Boiling and draining the tomatoes before cooking. Repeated boiling and draining removes excess water and some of the bitter, sharp liquid from the tomatoes. Skipping it leaves the preserve watery and harsh, and it may not thicken properly.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, raisin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger. 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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