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Tomato Preserves

A preserved tomato mixture made with sugar, lemons, ginger, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tomato Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash the tomatoes in cold water without breaking the skin.

  2. Make a syrup by boiling the sugar with a little water until dissolved. Pour the syrup over the tomatoes and let them stand overnight.

Cook the preserves

  1. The next day, place the tomatoes in a preserving kettle and gently boil over low heat for several hours until the juice forms a thick syrup.

  2. When about half done, add the sliced lemons, ginger root, and raisins, and continue boiling until done.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,887 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 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

Small round tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the preserve and release juice that cooks down into the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, as it dissolves and cooks, thickens the tomato juice into syrup.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the sweetness and helps balance the flavor.
Ginger root
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the preserves.
Raisins
Add plump chewy pieces and concentrated sweetness to the preserves.

The step that matters

Gentle boiling over low heat. Simmering slowly lets water evaporate and the juice thicken into syrup without scorching the sugar or breaking down the tomatoes into mush. Vigorous boiling risks burning on the bottom of the kettle.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, ginger, raisin):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, ginger, raisin. 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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