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Tomato Chowder

A preserved tomato and onion mixture spiced with mustard seed, vinegar, peppercorns, cloves, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Tomato Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Soak the green tomatoes in salt and water for 24 hours.

  2. Chop the tomatoes finely in a bowl and add the chopped onions.

  3. Mix in the white mustard seed.

Pickle and seal

  1. Scald enough vinegar to cover the mixture and spice it with peppercorns, cloves, and allspice tied in a muslin bag.

  2. Pour the spiced vinegar over the tomatoes and onions.

  3. Seal the jars tightly.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 hold their firm texture after soaking in brine.
Onions
Add savory flavor and pungency that mellows during pickling.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that infuses into the vinegar over time.
Vinegar
Acidifies the mixture, preserving it and giving it tang.

The step that matters

Soaking the green tomatoes in salt and water. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes through osmosis, firming their texture and reducing moisture so the pickle stays crisp rather than soft and watery. The full 24 hours lets the salt penetrate the pieces evenly.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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