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Green Tomato and Raisin Pickle

A pickled mixture of green tomatoes, raisins, sweet peppers, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 and Raisin Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green tomatoes and sweet peppers.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

Cook and jar

  1. Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens.

  2. Pour into sterilized jars and seal while hot.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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 its tart, firm body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the pickle as it cooks down.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Sweet peppers
Add mild sweetness, color and a softer texture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens. Cooking drives off water and lets sugar and pectin in the fruit set the mixture. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while overcooking can scorch the sugar and make it stick to the pot.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, vinegar, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper. 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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