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Universal Pickle

A pickled vegetable mixture made with vinegar, salt, spices, horseradish, onions, and assorted vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon 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 ↓

Universal Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the brine

  1. Pour 1 gallon of apple vinegar into a 3-gallon jar.

  2. Add 4 pints of coarse sea salt, 1 small box of mustard, and 1 pound of brown sugar.

  3. Stir in 2 ounces each of celery seed, mustard seed, allspice, cinnamon, turmeric, and black pepper.

  4. Add 3 cups of horseradish and 2 dozen small white onions.

  5. Let the mixture stand for 36 hours.

  6. Stir the mixture well two or three times a day for two days.

Pickle the vegetables

  1. Gather cucumbers and assorted vegetables.

  2. Wipe the cucumbers and assorted vegetables dry.

  3. Place the cucumbers and assorted vegetables in the jar.

  4. Ensure the vegetables are submerged in vinegar.

  5. Use a plate weighted with a stone to keep the vegetables submerged.

  6. Gather vegetables daily until the jar is full.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 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

Apple vinegar
Provides the acidic base that preserves and sharpens the pickling liquid.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables and helps keep them firm and crisp.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharp acidity and salt with sweetness and depth.
Horseradish
Adds pungent heat that mellows as the brine stands.
Mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that infuses the brine.
White onions
Absorb the brine and add sweetness and savour to the pickle.

The step that matters

Keeping the vegetables submerged. Any vegetable left above the vinegar brine can spoil or mould because it is exposed to air. A weighted plate holds everything under the liquid so the acid and salt protect the whole jar.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, sugar, celery, allspice, cinnamon, turmeric. 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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