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Green Tomato Relish

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, raisins, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Green Tomato Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Chop the green tomatoes and mix with 1 cup of salt. Let stand overnight. Drain well.

Boil and drain

  1. Place in a large pot with 4 cups of water. Boil for 20 minutes. Drain again.

Cook and seal

  1. Combine with all other ingredients, then return to heat. Boil for 10 minutes. Seal airtight for winter use.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 relish and give it its chunky texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the relish.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy bits that contrast with the soft tomato.

The step that matters

Draining after the overnight salt rest. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes. Draining them well removes that liquid, so the relish stays thick and is not overly salty once the vinegar and sugar are added.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, mustard, celery, pepper):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, mustard, celery, pepper. 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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