Skip to main content

Sweet Pickles

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the vegetables and fruits by washing and cutting them as needed.

  2. Combine the prepared ingredients in a large pot.

  3. Add sugar and vinegar to the pot, adjusting to taste.

  4. Simmer the mixture over low heat until the fruits and vegetables are tender.

  5. Transfer the mixture to sterilized jars and seal them tightly.

  6. Store in a cool, dark place for flavor to develop.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  3. Apple + grapetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Fig + peachtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Apple + peachtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, crab, apple, cucumber, fig, grape, peach):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, crab, apple, cucumber, fig, grape, peach. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More sweet pickles recipes

Green Tomato 4 See all 85 →

You might also like

Mixed Fruit SherbetMixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipesApple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesQuince JellyQuince Jelly131 recipesPineapple SherbetPineapple Sherbet116 recipes