Skip to main content
Preserve

India Pickles

A mixed pickle of green tomatoes, onions and cucumbers seasoned with curry powder, mustard, pepper and cayenne, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber 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 ↓

India Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice all the pickles and let stand in salt overnight.

  2. Get medium sized cucumbers and onions.

  3. Pare cucumbers.

  4. Take large green peppers and cut open the tops and take out the seeds.

  5. Soak peppers in water twenty-four hours, changing the water in that time if necessary.

  6. Break up a head of cauliflower, green beans, small cucumbers, radish seeds, small green tomatoes, and little onions.

  7. Let them stand in strong brine for one half hour.

  8. Melons not quite half ripe: pare them and take out seeds.

  9. Soak in brine three days.

  10. Brine: 1 teacup of salt to a pail of water.

  11. Wash in cold water before filling.

  12. Scald cauliflower in salt water to make tender.

Fill and pack

  1. Drain and stuff the peppers almost full.

  2. Slice cabbage fine and fill the top.

  3. Fasten the top down with a cucumber or bean or sew with thread.

  4. Pack them in a stone jar and pour over them cold vinegar.

  5. Add mixed spices and horseradish root.

Boil and finish

  1. Boil all together and put in jar.

  2. Boil and put on cold.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

329Calories
7 gProtein
15 gFat
46 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 12 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Broccoli1 cup chopped (156g)55
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Turmeric1 tsp ground (3g)9
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saladnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Vinegar
Provides the sour acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.
Sugar
Balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the pickle.
Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables and firms their texture during brining.
Cauliflower
Forms the firm, crisp bulk of the pickle mix and absorbs the spiced brine.

The step that matters

Soak and brine the vegetables fully. Salt brining draws out water and firms the vegetables, so skipping or shortening the soak leaves them soft and diluted once the hot vinegar is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, sugar, cauliflower, tomato, cucumber):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, sugar, cauliflower, tomato, cucumber. 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 indian pickles recipes

East 15 See all 15 →

You might also like

Green Corn PuddingGreen Corn Pudding64 recipesCornmeal mushCornmeal mush12 recipes