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Mango Pepper Pickle

A pickled pepper dish with tomatoes, onions, cabbage, sugar, horseradish, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 481 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mango Pepper Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Select good-sized peppers, discarding any that are withered or dark.

  2. Cut a circle around the stem with a sharp knife, then remove the stem whole and take out all the seeds.

  3. Replace the stem and secure it with a single stitch.

  4. Prepare a brine strong enough to float an egg and soak the peppers in it for two days.

  5. Rinse the peppers and dry them.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the green tomatoes, red tomatoes, onions, red pepper, and cabbage in a bowl to prepare the filling.

  2. Sprinkle the mixture with salt.

  3. Place the mixture in a cheesecloth bag and weigh the bag down.

  4. Let the mixture sit for 24 hours.

  5. Add the sugar, horseradish, white pepper, mace, celery seed, and mustard seed to the mixture.

Fill and pack

  1. Fill the prepared peppers with the mixture.

  2. Sew the tops back on.

  3. Pack the peppers in jars.

  4. Cover the jars with scalded vinegar.

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 + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + cabbagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 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

Green and red tomatoes
Supply bulk and tart, fresh flavour that forms the body of the filling.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk that holds its shape through the pickling.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes with sweetness.
Horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent heat that mellows during pickling.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, tangy aroma and bite to the filling.

The step that matters

Drawing out moisture from the filling. Salting and resting the chopped vegetables in a bag draws out excess water, so the filling stays firm and does not dilute the vinegar in the jars.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, egg, tomato, onion, cabbage, sugar, horseradish):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, tomato, onion, cabbage, sugar, horseradish. 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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