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Mixed Pickles

A pickled mixture of cabbage, beets, cucumbers, peppers, cauliflower, onions, horseradish, beans, tomatoes, and mustard seeds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the first mixture

  1. Combine raw cabbage, boiled beets, sugar, salt, red pepper, and grated horseradish in a large bowl.

  2. Cover the mixture with cold vinegar.

  3. Keep it sealed from air.

Brine and drain the vegetables

  1. In another bowl, mix cucumbers, green peppers, cauliflower, white cabbage, onions, horseradish, green beans, and green tomatoes.

  2. Soak this mixture in a strong brine for 24 hours.

  3. Drain for 3 hours.

Season and pickle

  1. Sprinkle in ½ pound each of black and white mustard seed and 1 tablespoon of black ground pepper.

  2. Add enough vinegar to cover the mixture.

  3. Bring to a boil, adding a little alum if desired.

  4. Drain again.

  5. When cool, mix in ½ pint of ground mustard.

  6. Cover the entire mixture with good cider vinegar.

  7. Add turmeric for coloring if you like.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Horseradish + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 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. Horseradish + cucumbertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulky body of the pickle that holds its texture in brine.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar and adds sweetness to the pickled vegetables.
Cider vinegar
Acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp tang.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent flavor and sharpness that characterises the pickle.
Cucumbers
Provide crunch and fresh body that soften gradually in the brine.
Onions
Contribute sharp aroma and savory depth to the mixture.

The step that matters

Draining after the brine. Salt draws water out of the vegetables, so draining well before adding vinegar keeps the pickle crisp and stops the vinegar from being diluted.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, sugar, pepper, horseradish, cucumber, cauliflower, green beans):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, sugar, pepper, horseradish, cucumber, cauliflower, green beans. 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.

More mixed pickles recipes

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