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Spiced Tomatoes

A sweet and spicy tomato preserve made with tomatoes, brown sugar, vinegar, cloves, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Spiced Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Scald the tomatoes.

  2. Slip off the skins.

Make the syrup and stew

  1. In a pot, combine the tomatoes, brown sugar, vinegar, cloves, and allspice.

  2. Stew over low heat until the tomatoes are cooked.

  3. Remove the tomatoes.

  4. Let them cool.

Finish the tomatoes

  1. Return the cooled tomatoes to the boiling syrup.

  2. Cook until dark red.

  3. Remove the tomatoes again.

  4. Boil the syrup until thick.

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. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Tomato + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 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

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and flesh of the preserve, which softens and absorbs the spiced syrup.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the dish and, when boiled down, thickens the syrup into a rich, glossy coating.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps keep the tomatoes tangy.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.
Allspice berries
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour that blends with the cloves in the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup until thick. Sugar syrup thickens as water evaporates and its concentration rises. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while overcooking can make it sticky and dark, so the syrup must be watched as it reduces.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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