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Piccalilli, or Indian Pickle

A pickled mixture of cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, melons, apples, French beans, and plums with ginger, vinegar, pepper, turmeric, and mustard seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Piccalilli, or Indian Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Dry the vegetables and fruit

  1. Lay the quartered cabbage, cauliflowers, cucumbers, melons, apples, French beans, and plums on a hair sieve.

  2. Strew a large handful of coarse sea salt over the vegetables and fruits.

  3. Set them in the sun for three to four days, or until very dry.

Prepare the ginger

  1. In a stone jar, combine the ginger with salt and water.

  2. Scrape the ginger.

  3. Slice the ginger.

  4. Salt the ginger.

  5. Dry the ginger in the sun.

Pickle

  1. Add the dried ginger to the gallon of vinegar along with the black pepper, turmeric, and bruised mustard seed.

  2. Seal the jar tightly.

  3. Prepare the cabbage and other vegetables.

  4. Ensure any fruit used is green.

  5. Continuously add fresh ingredients and vinegar as they come into season.

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 + plumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Melon + plumtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

White cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and holds a crisp texture after salting and drying.
Ginger
Adds a sharp, warming aroma and pungency that cuts through the sweetness of the fruit.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, giving the pickle its acidity and keeping it stable.
Mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp flavour and aroma to the pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow colour and a mild earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Drying the vegetables and fruit until very dry. Salting and sun-drying draw out water, so the vegetables stay crisp and the pickle does not dilute the vinegar. Wet produce can soften and spoil the jar.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, melon, beans, plum, ginger):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, melon, beans, plum, ginger. 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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