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Green Tomato Soy

A pickled green tomato relish with onions, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 Soy

Ingredients

Directions

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Stew over medium heat until tender, stirring often to prevent scorching.

Store

  1. Transfer to small glass jars for storage.

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. Allspice + clovetop 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
Provide the bulk and a firm, tart body that softens as the pickle stews.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and body, softening into the stewed mixture.
Vinegar
Supplies the sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Stirring while stewing. Sugar and sliced vegetables settle on the bottom of the pot and can scorch at medium heat. Stirring often keeps the mixture from sticking and burning, which would add a bitter flavor.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Horseradishbetter flavor fit
  3. Cucumberbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, allspice, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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