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Tomato Pickles

A pickled tomato recipe using brine, vinegar, spices, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the tomatoes

  1. Prick the tomatoes with a fork.

  2. Make a strong brine, boil and skim it.

  3. Cool the brine and soak the tomatoes for eight days.

Pickle and jar

  1. Remove the tomatoes and soak them in weak vinegar for 24 hours.

  2. Layer the tomatoes and thinly sliced onions in a jar.

  3. Sprinkle with cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and mustard.

  4. Pour sharp vinegar over the layers.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Tomatoes
Form the body of the pickle, softening slowly in brine and vinegar while holding their shape.
Onions
Add sweetness and a mellow savory flavor as they soak in the vinegar.
Sharp vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the tomatoes and gives the pickle its sharp tang.
Mustard
Adds a pungent, sharp flavor that balances the sweetness of the onions.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma that flavors the pickled tomatoes.
Cloves
Contributes warm, pungent aroma to the pickling liquid and tomatoes.

The step that matters

Cool the brine before soaking the tomatoes. Pouring hot brine over the tomatoes would partly cook them, leaving them soft and mushy. Cooling it first keeps the flesh firm while the salt slowly draws in and seasons it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cinnamon, clove, pepper, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cinnamon, clove, pepper, mustard, vinegar. 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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