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Salad

Green Tomatoe Pickle

A pickle made from green tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cabbage, salt, and vinegar.

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

  2. Mix the chopped tomatoes with the salt.

  3. Let the mixture drain to remove excess liquid.

  4. Chop the cabbage.

  5. Chop the cucumbers.

Combine and season

  1. Combine all chopped ingredients.

  2. Add vinegar to taste.

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
Provide the bulk of the pickle and its tart, fresh flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out excess liquid from the vegetables so the pickle stays firmer.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and body to the pickle.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and fresh moisture to the pickle.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.

The step that matters

Let the mixture drain. Salt draws water out of the chopped tomatoes. Draining off that liquid before combining keeps the pickle from becoming watery and helps it stay crisp.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, cucumber, cabbage, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, 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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