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Pickled Mangoes

Pickled mangoes preserved with salt, vinegar, spices, and brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Soak the mangoes in salt water for two weeks.

  2. Soak them 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 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 sit in the vinegar for a week.

Make the stuffing

  1. Prepare the stuffing by mixing ginger, black pepper, mace, allspice, turmeric, garlic, horseradish, black mustard seed, and white mustard seed with olive oil.

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

  3. Combine chopped cabbage, small onions, cucumbers, and green tomatoes in brine for a day and night.

  4. Drain the mixture.

  5. Mix in the chopped imperfect mangoes and spices.

Stuff and store

  1. Stuff the mangoes.

  2. Tie them.

  3. Place them in a stone jar.

  4. Cover with cider vinegar.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Mango + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together471 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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, absorbing the brine and spiced vinegar as they soften.
Ginger
Adds a sharp, aromatic heat that balances the sweetness and richness of the stuffing.
Mustard seed
Contributes a pungent bite that sharpens the flavour of the vinegar and spices.
Olive oil
Carries the spices and coats the stuffing, adding fat and helping flavours spread evenly.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharp acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tangy character.

The step that matters

Soaking the mangoes in salt water for two weeks. Salt draws water out of the fruit and firms its flesh, so a long, properly salted soak controls texture and helps keep the pickle from spoiling. Too short a soak leaves the fruit soft and vulnerable.

Swap the mace

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

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

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