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Pepper Mangoes

A pickled mango preserved with cabbage, pepper, mustard, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pepper Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Remove the cap from the mango pods and scrape out the seeds.

  2. Soak the pods in weak salt and water for one hour.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped cabbage, coarse sea salt, pulverized black pepper, white mustard seed, and ground mustard.

  2. Mix the ingredients well and drain the mango pods.

  3. Stuff the pods with the mixture and replace the caps.

Pack and cure

  1. Pack the stuffed pods tightly in a stone jar with the small end downwards.

  2. Once the jar is filled, pour strong cold vinegar over the pods.

  3. Let them sit for three weeks before using.

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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Mango + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together471 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Mango pods
Serve as the hollow vessel that holds the pickling filling and absorbs its flavour.
Chopped cabbage
Provides the bulk of the filling, becoming crisp-tender and absorbing the seasonings.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp pungency to the filling, which mellows during the long pickling time.
Strong cold vinegar
Acidifies the pods and preserves them, keeping the pickle sharp and safe to store.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the cabbage and seasons the filling.

The step that matters

Packing the pods tightly with the small end down. Tight packing leaves little air around the pods, so they stay submerged and covered by vinegar; loose packing lets air and surface mould spoil the pickle.

Swap the mango

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits about as well
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Mangothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, mustard, vinegar. 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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