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Spiced Tomatoes

A sweet and sour tomato relish made with tomatoes, brown sugar, vinegar, cloves, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Spiced Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Scald the tomatoes and slip off the skins.

  2. Stew the tomatoes over low heat.

  3. Once cooked, remove the tomatoes and let them cool.

Make the syrup and finish

  1. Return the cooled tomatoes to the boiling syrup and cook until dark red.

  2. Remove the tomatoes and boil the syrup until thick.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Tomato + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together670 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 flesh that softens and absorbs the spiced syrup.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the dish and, as it boils, thickens the syrup and helps it darken.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the tomatoes.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.
Allspice berries
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.

The step that matters

Return the cooled tomatoes to the boiling syrup and cook until dark red.. Cooking in the syrup must be gentle enough to keep the tomatoes whole while the sugar slowly caramelises and colours them. Overcooking breaks the tomatoes down and can scorch the sugar, giving a bitter taste.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, 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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