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Green Tomatoe Pickle

A pickled mixture of green tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, onions, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Tomatoe Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes and mix with salt; let drain to remove excess water.

  2. Chop the cabbage and cucumbers separately.

  3. Combine all chopped vegetables in a large bowl.

Pickle

  1. Spice the vinegar and heat until scalding.

  2. Once cooled, pour the spiced vinegar over the vegetables.

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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  3. Onion + cabbagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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
Form the bulk of the pickle and, once salted and drained, keep a firmer texture.
Salt
Draws excess water out of the tomatoes so the pickle stays less watery.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and bulk to the chopped vegetable mix.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and body to the mixed vegetables.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.

The step that matters

Draining the green tomatoes after salting. Salt pulls water out of the tomatoes by osmosis. If they are not drained well, excess liquid dilutes the vinegar and makes the pickle watery and softer.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, cabbage, vinegar):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Cauliflowerfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, cabbage, 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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