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Pickled Mangoes

A preserved mango dish with salt, vinegar, spices, and a cabbage‑onion‑cucumber mixture, stored in jars.

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 salt water strong enough to float an egg for 2 weeks.

  2. Soak them in pure water for 2 days, changing the water 2-3 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 filling

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

  2. Slice the ginger.

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

  4. Bruise the spices.

  5. Mix with 1 teacup of olive oil.

  6. Add 2 teaspoons of brown sugar to each mango.

Combine and stuff

  1. Finely chop the cabbage.

  2. Mix with small onions, cucumbers, and green tomatoes.

  3. Soak the mixture in brine for 1 day and night.

  4. Drain well.

  5. Add the chopped imperfect mangoes and spices to the mixture.

  6. Mix thoroughly.

  7. Stuff the mangoes with the mixture.

  8. Tie them.

  9. Place them in a stone jar.

  10. Cover with cider vinegar.

Store and sweeten

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

  2. After a month, add 3 pounds of brown sugar.

  3. Adjust 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
Form the main body of the pickle and take on flavour from the brine and spices.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the fruit and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Brown sugar
Sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and spices.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savoury depth to the spice filling.
Mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that stands up to the vinegar and sugar.
Cabbage
Provides crisp bulk that holds the filling inside the mangoes.

The step that matters

Soaking the mangoes in salt water and then pure water. Salt brine draws out moisture and bitterness from the fruit, and the later freshwater soak removes the excess salt; skipping or shortening either soak leaves the pickle too salty or harsh.

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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