Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Tomato Soy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Prick the ripe tomatoes with a fork and place them in a dish.
Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over each layer of tomatoes.
Let the tomatoes sit for three to four days.
Pickle
The next day, put the tomatoes in vinegar for one night.
Drain off the vinegar the following day.
Layer the tomatoes in a jar with sliced onions, sprinkling spices between each layer.
Use ½ pint of English mustard seed, ½ ounce of ground cloves, and pepper for each peck of tomatoes.
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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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Ripe tomatoes
- Provide the main body of the pickle, softening as they sit in salt and vinegar.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the tomatoes over several days, firming them and concentrating flavour.
- Vinegar
- Provides acidity that preserves the tomatoes and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
- Sliced onions
- Add sweetness and savoury depth as they layer with the tomatoes in the jar.
The step that matters
Salting and resting the tomatoes. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes over the three to four days. Skipping or shortening this rest leaves the pickle watery and less firm, so the tomatoes should sit undisturbed for the full time.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, onion, mustard, clove, pepper):
- Horseradishfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Lettucefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, onion, mustard, clove, pepper. 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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