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Yellow Pickle

Pickled cabbage with mustard seeds, celery seed, coriander, white pepper, green ginger, turmeric, and brown sugar in cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 spice vinegar

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

  2. Add the cider vinegar to the mixture.

  3. Set the mixture in the sun.

Brine the cabbages

  1. Quarter the cabbages.

  2. Place the quartered cabbages in a tub.

  3. Make a strong brine.

  4. Boil the brine.

  5. Pour the hot brine over the cabbages.

  6. Let the cabbages stand for 24 hours.

  7. Repeat the process.

Dry and pickle

  1. Spread the cabbages on a board.

  2. Salt the cabbages slightly.

  3. Let the cabbages sit in the hot sun for four days. Avoid dew on the cabbages.

  4. Transfer the cabbages to a jar.

  5. Pour the prepared vinegar over the cabbages while boiling hot.

  6. 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
Forms the crisp body of the pickle, which softens and absorbs the brine over time.
Black mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent heat that mellows during the long pickling period.
White mustard seed
Contributes pungent flavour that carries through the spiced vinegar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the cider vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbages and gives the pickle its tang.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and an earthy, bitter aroma.

The step that matters

Pour the prepared vinegar over the cabbages while boiling hot. Hot vinegar penetrates the cabbage and helps soften it and drive off air, so the pickle keeps well and absorbs the spices. Letting it cool first slows absorption and weakens the preservation.

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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