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French Pickle

A pickled vegetable mixture of tomatoes, onions, celery, and cauliflower in vinegar, sugar, mustard, spices, and an egg‑flour binder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 687 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

French Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine the chopped tomatoes, onions, celery, and cauliflower in a large pot.

Make the pickle

  1. Add vinegar, brown sugar, mustard, salt, red pepper, and turmeric to the pot.

  2. Heat the mixture until it is scalding, but do not let it boil.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the raw egg and mix in the flour and butter.

  4. Stir the egg mixture into the pot and mix well.

  5. Immediately seal the mixture in Perfect Seal 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. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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
Supply the bulk of the chopped vegetables and tart, fresh flavor.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp taste.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Egg
Thickens the mixture as it cooks, giving it a richer, more body-filled texture.
Flour
Helps thicken the sauce together with the egg for a smoother consistency.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the thickened sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture. The raw egg must be stirred into the hot mixture gradually and well so it thickens smoothly without scrambling. Keeping the pot from boiling protects the egg's texture and the sauce's consistency.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, celery, cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper):

  1. Broccolifits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, mustard, 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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