Name: Tomato Preserves
Ingredients: 10 pounds small round tomatoes (red or yellow); 10 pounds good clarified sugar; water (as needed); 2 ordinary sized lemons, sliced; ½ ounce good white ginger root, bruised or finely chopped; ¼ pound good plump raisins

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

10 pounds small round tomatoes (red or yellow)
10 pounds good clarified sugar
water (as needed)
2 ordinary sized lemons, sliced
½ ounce good white ginger root, bruised or finely chopped
¼ pound good plump raisins

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

Wash the tomatoes in cold water, being careful not to break the skin.
Make a syrup by dissolving the sugar in a little water and boiling gently.
Pour the syrup over the tomatoes and let them stand overnight.

Cook the preserves

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.
When about halfway 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.

Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,592 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,242 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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 fruit that softens and absorbs the sugar syrup during cooking.
Sugar: Sweetens the preserves and, as it thickens with cooking, helps form the thick syrup.
Lemons: Add acidity that brightens the sweetness and helps the preserves set.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they plump in the syrup.

The step that matters

Gentle, slow boiling over low heat. Keeping the boil gentle helps the tomatoes hold their shape and lets water evaporate slowly, so the juice thickens into syrup without scorching the sugar or breaking the fruit apart.

Swap the tomato

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

Arrowrootfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Shallotfits better
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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Tomato Preserves