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Green Tomato Pickle

A pickled mixture of green tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, celery, and spices in cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard 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 ↓

Green Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions very fine.

  2. Salt the chopped ingredients well and let them hang out in the air overnight to drain juice.

Make the pickle

  1. The next morning, place the chopped ingredients in a kettle and cover with cider vinegar.

  2. Bring to a boil, then put into jars.

  3. In the fall, chop the celery very fine and add it to the mixture.

  4. Add the spices: cinnamon, mustard seeds, and red pepper to taste.

  5. For each pint of the mixture, add 1 pint of sugar and boil together before putting in jars.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  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 contribute tartness and body once cooked.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and moisture that releases juice when salted.
Onions
Add savory depth and aroma to the chopped vegetable base.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tang.
White mustard seeds
Contribute pungent, sharp flavor that mellows during boiling.

The step that matters

Salting and draining overnight. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables through osmosis. Draining them well before cooking keeps the pickle from becoming watery and diluting the vinegar and sugar.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, onion, cider, vinegar, celery, mustard):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, onion, cider, vinegar, celery, mustard. 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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