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Dessert

Tomato Jam

A sweet preserve made from tomatoes, apples, lemons, brown and white sugar, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Tomato Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and chop the tomatoes.

Cook

  1. Combine tomatoes, brown sugar, and white sugar in a large pot.

  2. Add sliced apples, lemons, and cinnamon.

  3. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thickened.

Jar

  1. Pour into sterilized 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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,348 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and bulk of the jam.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, molasses-like flavour along with moisture.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the jam thicken as it cooks down.
Sour apples
Add natural pectin and tartness that balance the sweetness.
Lemons
Add acidity and extra pectin to help the jam set.

The step that matters

Cooking until thickened. Sugar and fruit must be cooked down long enough to reach a concentration where the jam sets. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and sticky, and frequent stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, apple, lemon, cinnamon):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, apple, lemon, 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.

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