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Mixed Pickle

A preserved mixture of various vegetables in vinegar with spices, left to mature for a year.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Mixed Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Pour the vinegar into a large jar with a tightly-fitting lid, reserving a little to mix with the powders.

  2. In a basin, combine mustard, turmeric, pepper, and cayenne with the reserved vinegar to form a smooth paste.

  3. Add all ingredients to the jar of vinegar and mix well.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Gather vegetables on a dry day.

  2. Wipe the vegetables to remove moisture.

  3. Divide cauliflowers into small bunches before adding.

  4. Add the vegetables to the pickle raw.

Ferment and store

  1. Keep the jar in a warm place.

  2. Stir the mixture every morning for a month with a wooden spoon.

  3. At the end of the season, store the pickle in jars and cover with bladder.

  4. Wait 12 months before eating.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Turmeric + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Mustard + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Forms the acidic liquid that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent heat and flavour to the pickling liquid.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow colour and earthy flavour.
Cayenne
Adds sharp heat that carries through the long pickling period.
Cauliflowers
Provide the firm, crisp vegetable base that absorbs the pickling liquid.
Ginger
Adds aromatic warmth that complements the mustard and spices.

The step that matters

Wiping the vegetables dry. Surface moisture dilutes the vinegar and can encourage spoilage during the long standing period, so vegetables should be dry before they go into the jar.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Broccolifits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger, mustard, turmeric, pepper, cauliflower, celery. 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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