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Mustard Pickle

A pickled cucumber and vegetable mixture flavored with mustard, turmeric, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mustard Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice cucumbers.

  2. Cut string beans into 1-inch lengths.

  3. Chop peppers.

  4. Soak all vegetables in brine overnight.

  5. Rinse vegetables in clear water for 2 hours.

  6. Soak vegetables in a mixture of half vinegar and half water for 15 minutes.

  7. Scald vegetables in the same liquid.

  8. Drain the vegetables thoroughly.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix dry ingredients until smooth.

  2. Slowly add hot vinegar while stirring to form a paste.

  3. Cook the dressing over a pan of water.

  4. Stir the dressing carefully until it thickens.

Combine and jar

  1. Pour the hot mustard dressing over the vegetables, mixing well.

  2. Pack the mixture into sterilized jars.

  3. Process 10-ounce jars for 20 minutes at 180°F (82°C).

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. Cucumber + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + beanstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Beans + figtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together39 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

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, firm pieces that make up the body of the pickle.
Flour
Thickens the mustard dressing so it coats the vegetables rather than running off.
Vinegar
Acidifies the dressing, giving the pickle its sharp flavour and helping preserve it.
Powdered mustard
Supplies the pungent mustard flavour that defines the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Sweet peppers
Add colour, mild sweetness and crunch to the mixed vegetables.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until it thickens. Flour thickens only as its starch swells in heated liquid, so the dressing must be stirred gently and kept hot until smooth and thick. Stopping early leaves a thin sauce, and overheating or scorching at the bottom of the pan can make it lumpy or taste burnt.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, beans, pepper, fig, vinegar, flour, sugar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, beans, pepper, fig, vinegar, flour, sugar. 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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