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Chopped Pickles

A salad of chopped cucumbers, onions, peppers, and spices pickled in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chopped Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine one-half cupful of ripe tomatoes, chopped fine, two roots of horseradish, one cupful of salt, one cupful of white mustard seed, two tablespoonfuls of black pepper, two of red pepper, five celery stalks, cut fine, and three large onions.

  2. Add a teaspoonful of mace, one clove, two of cinnamon, a teacupful of sugar, and one quart of cider vinegar.

  3. Take one dozen large ripe cucumbers, pare and chop (removing seeds) to the size of a small bean; also chop twelve large white onions and six large red peppers.

  4. Add a quarter pound of white mustard seed and the same amount of black mustard seed, one gill of celery seed, and one teacupful of salt; mix all together.

Drain and pack

  1. Hang the mixture in a bag and let it drain for twenty-four hours.

  2. Put the drained mixture in a jar and cover with cold vinegar.

Serving note

  1. (Optional) If you live away from market and cannot get celery, a small teacupful of this pickle mixed with meat or fish salad makes it very nice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

115Calories
4 gProtein
1 gFat
25 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 15 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Celery Seed1 stalk (40g)6
Celery Stalks1 stalk (40g)6
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
White Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Seednot in our table0
Cidernot in our table0
Macenot in our table0
Horseradishnot 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 Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid 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. Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + horseradishtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together835 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

Cucumbers
Make up the bulk of the pickle, providing crisp texture once drained.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during the long soak in vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it its tangy bite.
Onions
Add pungent sharpness and savoury depth to the mixed pickle.
Celery stalks
Contribute fresh, vegetal flavour and crunch to the salad.

The step that matters

Draining for twenty-four hours. Draining removes excess liquid released by the salted vegetables, so the pickle stays crisp and does not dilute the vinegar cover. Salt draws water out of cucumbers and onions through osmosis, so the drained mixture must be fully allowed to drip before jarring.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, mustard, pepper, cider, vinegar, celery, horseradish):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, pepper, cider, vinegar, celery, horseradish. 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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