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Salad

Chop Pickle

A pickled mixture of cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chop Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the chopped cabbage, green tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, turmeric, mustard seed, celery seed, mustard, red pepper, and green peppers in a pot for 15 minutes.

  2. Add salt and brown sugar, then pour in enough vinegar to cover all the ingredients.

  3. Let the mixture cool before transferring it to jars.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Turmeric + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 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 tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the chopped body and tart flavor that the pickle is built around.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Cabbage
Supplies the main chopped bulk and a firm, crisp texture.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavor to the pickled mixture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, tomato, cucumber, turmeric, mustard, celery, pepper):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, tomato, cucumber, turmeric, mustard, celery, pepper. 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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