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Spanish Pickles

A pickled tomato and onion relish seasoned with vinegar, spices, and sugar.

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 ↓

Spanish Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes the night before and layer them in a basin with a sprinkle of coarse sea salt.

Cook

  1. In the morning, place the basin on the stove and pour in the vinegar and water.

  2. Make a thickening with turmeric and mustard, then pour it over the pickles.

  3. Add the sugar and spice bag, and cook until the vegetables are tender.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Turmeric + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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.
Onions
Add savoury depth and soften into the sweet-sour liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness and adds sweetness.
Mustard
Helps thicken the liquid and adds a sharp, pungent note.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour.

The step that matters

Adding the thickening. Mix the turmeric and mustard smoothly with liquid before adding it. Dry starch or flour clumps when it meets hot liquid, and stirring the pickles evenly spreads the thickening so the sauce sets uniformly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, turmeric, mustard, allspice, cinnamon, 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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