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Yellow Pickle

A pickled cabbage preserved with mustard seeds, celery seed, coriander, pepper, ginger, turmeric, and brown sugar in cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Yellow Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickling liquid

  1. Combine black mustard seed, white mustard seed, celery seed, coriander, white pepper, green ginger, turmeric, and brown sugar in a large container.

  2. Add 1½ gallons of cider vinegar and set the mixture in the sun.

Brine the cabbage

  1. Quarter the cabbages and place them in a tub.

  2. Make a strong brine with coarse sea salt and pour it over the cabbages while hot.

  3. Let the cabbages stand for 24 hours, then repeat the process.

  4. On the third day, spread the cabbages on a board, salt them slightly, and let them sit in the hot sun for four days, avoiding dew.

Pack and check

  1. Transfer the cabbages to a jar and pour the prepared vinegar over them while boiling hot.

  2. Taste to check if the pickles have softened and absorbed the vinegar before serving.

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. Coriander + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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

Cabbages
Form the body of the pickle, becoming softer and absorbing the vinegar flavour as they cure.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and carries the spice flavours.
Black mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent heat and flavour to the pickling liquid.
White mustard seed
Adds a milder, sharp pungency to the pickling liquid.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and an earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Salting the cabbage in the brine and sun stages. Salt draws water out of the cabbage and firms its texture, while the sun-warmed brine speeds absorption. Too little salt or too much time in the sun can let the cabbage spoil or turn soft and limp.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, celery, coriander, ginger, turmeric, sugar, cider):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, celery, coriander, ginger, turmeric, sugar, cider. 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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