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Tomato Pickles

A pickled tomato and pepper mixture preserved in cold vinegar with bruised cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Tomato Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the tomatoes and peppers in cold water for 24 hours.

  2. Drain and place them in a jar.

Pickle and seal

  1. Cover with cold, sharp vinegar.

  2. Add bruised cloves.

  3. Seal the jars when cold.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 absorb the vinegar flavour as they sit.
Peppers
Add sharpness and aroma that complement the tomatoes in the brine.
Sharp vinegar
Acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tangy character.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice that flavours the vinegar.

The step that matters

Soaking the tomatoes and peppers. Soaking in cold water for a full day draws out moisture and some of the sharp bitterness before the vinegar is added. Skipping or shortening it leaves the pickle wetter and harsher, and the vinegar cannot be fully absorbed evenly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, 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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