Name: Spiced Tomatoes
Ingredients: 1 peck of tomatoes, seeded; 1 dozen onions, chopped; ½ large box of mustard; 6 green and red peppers, chopped; 1 tablespoon celery seed; 1 teaspoon mustard seed; 1 tablespoon cloves; ½ gallon vinegar; 2 pounds brown sugar

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spiced Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

Salt and drain the tomatoes and onions.
Chop the tomatoes, onions, and peppers.
Mix the chopped vegetables in a jar.

Make the spiced vinegar and combine

In a separate bowl, combine sugar, mustard, celery seed, mustard seed, cloves, and vinegar. Stir thoroughly.
Pour the vinegar mixture over the chopped vegetables. Mix well.

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

Tomatoes: Provide the bulk and moisture that make up most of the relish.
Onions: Add pungent flavor and body to the mixture.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it its sharp tang.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Green and red peppers: Contribute fresh, slightly sweet vegetable flavor and crunch.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Lettucefits better
Horseradishfits better
Onionthe original

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