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Mustard Pickles

Pickled vegetables in a mustard and vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mustard Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mustard sauce

  1. In a large pot, mix the vinegar, mustard, corn starch, turmeric, salt, cayenne pepper, and spices with a little cold vinegar.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring for half an hour.

Prepare and pour

  1. Prepare the vegetables by wiping them clean and drying them.

  2. Pour the hot mustard mixture over the vegetables.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the pickle.
Corn starch
Thickens the mustard mixture as it cooks, giving it a smooth, coating body.
Vinegar
Acidifies the sauce, adding tang and helping preserve the vegetables.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its bright yellow color and a mild, earthy flavor.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that balances the sharpness of the mustard.

The step that matters

Boiling the mustard mixture while stirring. Corn starch thickens only when it reaches a boil, and it can scorch or form lumps on the bottom of the pot if not stirred constantly. Stirring keeps the sauce smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, corn, turmeric, pepper, clove, ginger, allspice):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, corn, turmeric, pepper, clove, ginger, 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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