Name: Green Tomato Pie
Ingredients: 5 or 6 green tomatoes, sliced; ½ cup vinegar; 1 cup sugar; 1 small piece of butter; ¼ teaspoon allspice; 2 tablespoons flour

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare the under crust and place the sliced tomatoes in it.

Fill and bake

Add vinegar, sugar, and butter to the tomatoes.
Sprinkle allspice and flour over the mixture.
Cover with the top crust and bake until golden.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,302 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Tomato + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together670 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,548 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Green tomatoes: Provide the main filling bulk and tart flavor of the pie.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor of the green tomatoes.
Sugar: Balances the sourness of the vinegar and tomatoes with sweetness.
Flour: Thickens the juices released by the tomatoes as the pie bakes.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, butter, allspice, flour):

Mustardfits better
Shallotfits better
Arrowrootfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, butter, allspice, flour. 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.