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Green Tomato Pickles

Pickled green tomatoes with onions, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger 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

  1. Slice the tomatoes and onions, sprinkle with salt, and let stand for 24 hours; then drain well.

  2. In the morning, boil the water and 1 quart of vinegar together.

Cook the pickles

  1. Add the remaining vinegar, brown sugar, and spices to the boiling mixture.

  2. Boil the pickles in this syrup for 15 minutes in small batches to prevent burning.

  3. Place cinnamon and cloves in a bag for flavoring.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Makes up the bulk of the pickle and holds a firm, crisp bite after salting.
Onions
Adds savory sweetness and aroma that mellows during the long simmer.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and a molasses depth.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavor to the syrup.
Ginger
Contributes warm, spicy aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the pickles in small batches. Sugar-rich syrup scorches easily, and crowded pieces in a single pot heat unevenly and can burn. Small batches keep the syrup at an even simmer so the pickles cook through without sticking or darkening.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, pepper, vinegar, sugar, clove, ginger. 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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