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Dessert

Tomato Jam

A sweet and tangy preserve made from tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, salt, cloves, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Tomato Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and chop the tomatoes.

  2. In a large pot, combine tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, salt, cloves, and cinnamon.

Cook and jar

  1. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and moisture that cook down into the jam's thick texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as water evaporates, helps the mixture thicken into a spreadable set.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the jam.
Cloves
Adds a strong, warm aroma that flavors the jam.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring frequently. As water evaporates, the sugar and tomato solids concentrate and thicken the mixture. Sugar-rich mixtures scorch easily on the bottom of the pot, so frequent stirring prevents sticking and burnt flavor.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, clove, 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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