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Green Tomato Pickles

Pickled green tomatoes in a sweet vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Slice green tomatoes and boil in weak brine until tender.

Make the syrup and pour

  1. Dissolve brown sugar in vinegar, scald, and pour over tomatoes.

  2. Repeat this process for nine mornings if left unsealed.

  3. Add spices to suit your 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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 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

Green tomatoes
Forms the body of the pickle and softens in the brine until tender.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp flavour and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Repeating the pour for nine mornings. Sugar and vinegar draw moisture and flavour into the tomatoes over time, so the repeated pours gradually change the texture and taste. Skipping or shortening the repeats leaves the pickle less flavourful.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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