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Lemon Mangoes

A pickled lemon preserved with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lemon Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemons

  1. Cut off a piece from the blossom end of each lemon, leaving a surface the size of a shilling.

  2. Scoop out the insides and wash them in cold water to remove loose pulp.

  3. Immerse the lemons in a brine of 1 pound of coarse sea salt to 1 gallon of water.

  4. Rouse them occasionally and change the brine on the third day, letting them pickle for three more days.

  5. Drain and wipe the lemons dry.

Fill and pack

  1. Fill them with a mixture of horseradish, mustard seed, ginger, eschalots, and chillies.

  2. Stitch the cut pieces back onto the lemons.

  3. Place the lemons closely together in a stone jar.

Pickle and seal

  1. Pour boiling hot pickling liquid made from vinegar, strained lemon juice, table salt, white peppercorns, bruised ginger, and mace over the lemons.

  2. Ensure the lemons are well covered by the pickle, and cover with paper for three days, then top up with more pickle if needed.

  3. Seal the jars with bladder and cover with leather.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lemon + horseradishtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mustard + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,456 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

Lemons
Provide the main body and acidic juice that the pickle preserves and flavours.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out and seasons the lemon peel during the brine stage.
Mustard seed
Adds sharp pungency that mellows as the lemons pickle.
Pickling vinegar
Acidifies the liquid, helping preserve the lemons and keep them firm.

The step that matters

Keeping the lemons fully submerged in the pickle. Lemons exposed to air can spoil and grow mould, so keeping every piece covered by the acidic, salty liquid is what preserves them.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, horseradish, mustard, ginger, vinegar):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, horseradish, mustard, ginger, 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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