Why it works: Tomato and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,887 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Preserve
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Seal and peel the tomatoes carefully.
Prick each tomato with a needle to prevent bursting.
Let the tomatoes stand overnight with an equal weight of sugar.
Make the syrup and cook
Pour the juice into a preserving kettle and boil until it becomes a thick syrup, clarifying with the white of an egg.
Add the tomatoes and boil carefully until they look transparent.
If desired, add ginger or lemon slices while cooking.
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.
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Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,887 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + gingertop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,337 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,667 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the fruit that becomes the preserve, and their juice forms the syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and, by drawing out juice, forms the thick syrup it cooks in.
- Egg white
- Clarifies the syrup, binding impurities so they can be skimmed off for a clear preserve.
The step that matters
Boil the tomatoes carefully until transparent. Boiling hard or too long can break the tomatoes apart. Gentle cooking in thick sugar syrup lets sugar slowly replace the water in the fruit, which is what makes it look clear.
Swap the ginger
The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Corianderfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, egg. 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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