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Pickled Mangoes

A preserved mango dish with salt, vinegar, spices, and a mixture of ginger, pepper, allspice, turmeric, garlic, horseradish, mustard seeds, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Pickled Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Soak the mangoes in strong salt water (enough to float an egg) for two weeks.

  2. Soak them in pure water for two days, changing the water two or three times.

  3. Remove the seeds and layer grape leaves and mangoes in a kettle, covering with leaves.

  4. Add a lump of alum and pour vinegar over the mangoes.

  5. Boil for 10-15 minutes.

  6. Remove the leaves.

  7. Let the pickles sit in the vinegar for a week.

Make the spice mixture

  1. Soak ginger in brine for 1-2 days.

  2. Slice the ginger.

  3. Mix the ginger with black pepper, mace, allspice, turmeric, garlic (soaked and dried), grated horseradish, black mustard seed, and white mustard seed.

  4. Bruise the spices.

  5. Mix the spices with ½ cup olive oil.

  6. For each mango, add 2 teaspoons of brown sugar.

Stuff and store

  1. Finely chop the cabbage.

  2. Add small onions, cucumbers, and green tomatoes.

  3. Soak in brine for a day and night.

  4. Drain the mixture well.

  5. Mix in chopped imperfect mangoes and spices.

  6. Stuff the mangoes and tie them.

  7. Place the stuffed mangoes in a stone jar.

  8. Pour cider vinegar over them.

  9. Store in a bright, dry place until canned.

  10. After a month, add 3 pounds of brown sugar, adjusting to taste.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mango + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 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

Mangoes
Serve as the main pickled fruit that absorbs the brine and spiced vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and flavor to the spice mixture.
Black mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavor to the spice mixture.
White mustard seed
Adds mild pungency and texture to the spice mixture.

The step that matters

Soaking the mangoes in strong salt water for two weeks. Salt draws water out of the fruit through osmosis and firms its texture, so the fruit can take up brine and vinegar later without turning mushy. Skipping or shortening this soak risks a soft pickle.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, grape, vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, turmeric):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, grape, vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, 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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