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French Tomato Pickle

A pickled green tomato and onion mixture flavored with salt, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

French Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Combine chopped green tomatoes and onion in a bowl, sprinkle with salt, and let sit overnight.

  2. Drain the mixture and boil in 2 quarts of water for 15-20 minutes.

Cook the pickle

  1. Drain again and boil in 2 quarts of vinegar, adding brown sugar, mustard seed, ground mustard, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cayenne pepper, and ginger.

  2. Cook until well combined and thickened.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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 the thick, chunky texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onion overnight, firming them for the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and preserving character.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the acidity of the vinegar.
Mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, slightly bitter flavour that deepens as the pickle cooks.

The step that matters

Cook until well combined and thickened. Simmering long enough lets the sugar and vinegar concentrate and the mixture reduce to a thick, spreadable consistency. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, while overcooking can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, sugar, mustard, cinnamon, 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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