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Green Tomato Pickles

Pickled green tomatoes and onions with spices, boiled in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle the sliced tomatoes and onions with coarse sea salt and let them stand overnight.

  2. Drain the tomatoes and onions the next day.

Make the pickles

  1. In a kettle, layer the spices and the drained tomatoes and onions alternately.

  2. Cover the mixture with vinegar and wet the mustard before adding it.

  3. Boil the entire mixture for 20 minutes.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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 soften into a tender, chunky texture when cooked.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma that mellow during the long cook.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the pickle.
Yellow mustard-seed
Adds a sharp, pungent aroma and bite to the pickle.
Whole cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice that infuses the vinegar and vegetables.

The step that matters

Drain the tomatoes and onions the next day. Salt draws water out of the vegetables overnight. Draining off that liquid keeps the pickle from being diluted, so the vinegar stays sharp and the vegetables stay firmer rather than soggy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, mustard, pepper, clove, allspice, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, mustard, pepper, clove, allspice, 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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