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Green Tomato Pickle

A pickled green tomato and onion relish seasoned with salt, sugar, mustard, cloves, cinnamon, cayenne, and curry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Green Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the green tomatoes and onions thinly.

  2. Soak them in salt water overnight.

Cook and pack

  1. Drain the brine and place the vegetables in a preserving kettle.

  2. Add sugar, mustard, ground cloves, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and curry powder.

  3. Simmer for one hour.

  4. Transfer to stone or glass 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. Clove + cinnamontop 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. Mustard + cinnamontop 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the main body of the pickle, becoming tender during simmering while holding their shape.
Onions
Add savory bulk and sweetness that mellows as they cook down in the vinegar-free brine.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the sliced vegetables, firming them and reducing their moisture before cooking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the salt and spices and helps preserve the pickle.
Mustard
Contributes sharp, pungent flavor that deepens during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Soaking overnight in salt water. Salt pulls water out of the sliced vegetables through osmosis. Soaking long enough firms the texture and reduces excess moisture, so the simmered pickle does not turn watery or mushy. Draining the brine fully before cooking keeps the final product from tasting overly salty.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, mustard, clove, 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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