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Piccalilli

Piccalilli is a pickled relish of cabbage, beetroot, cauliflower, gherkins, mustard seed, garlic, eschalots, turmeric, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 514 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Piccalilli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut the cabbages crosswise into slices.

  2. Slice the beetroot the same way.

  3. Divide the cauliflower into small sprigs.

  4. Place the vegetables apart and sprinkle with salt.

  5. Expose to sunlight or a slow fire for 4 days until moisture is drawn out.

Pickle and pack

  1. Pack the vegetables into a large stoneware jar, scattering mustard seed among them.

  2. Boil garlic, eschalots, salt, turmeric, and vinegar together.

  3. Pour the hot mixture over the vegetables and cover tightly.

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 + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beetroot + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  4. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

  5. Beetroot + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 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

White cabbages
Form the bulk of the pickle and give it a crisp, sturdy texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the vegetables so they keep crisp and do not dilute the pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its bright yellow colour and a mild, earthy aroma.
Pickling vinegar
Acidifies the pickle, preserving the vegetables and providing its sharp flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp flavour and a slight crunch to the pickle.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savoury depth to the pickling liquor.

The step that matters

Drawing moisture out of the vegetables with salt for 4 days. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis. If they are not drained well, the pickling liquor is diluted and the vegetables can soften or spoil, so the salting must go on until moisture is clearly drawn out.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, beetroot, cauliflower, mustard, turmeric, vinegar):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, beetroot, cauliflower, mustard, turmeric, vinegar. 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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