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Pickled Mangoes

A preserved mango dish flavored with salt, vinegar, spices, and vegetables, then stored in a jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 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 for two weeks.

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

  3. Remove the seeds.

  4. Layer grape leaves and mangoes in a kettle, covering the top with leaves.

  5. Add a lump of alum and pour vinegar over them.

  6. Boil for 10-15 minutes.

  7. Remove the leaves.

  8. Let the pickles stand in 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, turmeric, dried garlic, grated horseradish, black mustard seed, and white mustard seed.

  4. Bruise the spices.

  5. Mix with olive oil.

  6. Add 1 teaspoon of brown sugar to each mango.

  7. Finely chop the cabbage, small onions, cucumbers, and green tomatoes.

  8. Soak in brine for a day and night.

  9. Drain.

  10. Mix the chopped vegetables with the spices.

Stuff and store

  1. Stuff the mangoes, tying them securely.

  2. Place them in a stone jar.

  3. Pour cider vinegar over them.

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

  5. After a month, add brown sugar 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. Mango + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mango + grapetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together101 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Mango + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 up the spiced filling and vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and salt.
Olive oil
Carries the spices and adds fat that coats the filling.
Black mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour to the spice mix.
Horseradish
Adds sharp heat that cuts through the sweetness of the pickle.

The step that matters

Soaking the mangoes in salt water and then pure water. Salt draws water out and firms the fruit, while the later soak in plain water removes excess salt. Skipping or shortening either soak can leave the pickle too soft or too salty.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Corianderfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, grape, vinegar, ginger, pepper, turmeric, garlic. 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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