Name: Green Tomato Pickles
Ingredients: 5 gallons green tomatoes, sliced thin; 1 pint coarse sea salt; 1 gallon best cider vinegar; 1 cup flour; 1 cup brown sugar; 2 tablespoons ground pepper; 1 tablespoon ground ginger; 1 tablespoon ground cloves; 2 quarts sliced onions

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Sprinkle the salt over the sliced tomatoes and let them stand overnight.
Drain off the water that has risen on the tomatoes.

Make the pickles

In a large pot, combine the vinegar, flour, brown sugar, ground pepper, ground ginger, and ground cloves.
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.
Add the tomatoes and sliced onions, and boil until the tomatoes begin to soften.

Cool

Let the pickles cool before using.

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.

Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,800 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: Form the bulk of the pickle and soften into tender pieces as they simmer in the liquid.
Cider vinegar: Provides the sour acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Flour: Thickens the boiling vinegar mixture so it clings to the tomatoes and onions.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar.
Sliced onions: Add savory flavor and soft texture as they cook in the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Stirring the vinegar mixture while it comes to a boil. Flour and sugar can clump and scorch on the bottom of the pot before the liquid thickens evenly. Frequent stirring keeps the flour dispersed and the mixture smooth and evenly heated.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, flour, sugar, pepper, ginger, clove):

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Shallotfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, flour, sugar, pepper, ginger, clove. 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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Green Tomato Pickles