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Mustard Pickles

A pickled vegetable mix flavored with mustard, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Mustard Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine all chopped vegetables in a large bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, mix vinegar, mustard, flour, brown sugar, salt, olive oil, and turmeric until smooth.

  2. Pour the mixture over the vegetables and stir well.

Jar and store

  1. Transfer to sterilized jars and seal tightly.

  2. Store in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks before using.

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. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, bulky vegetable body of the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard
Adds pungent flavour and helps emulsify the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the mustard sauce so it coats the vegetables.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Turmeric powder
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and mild earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce smooth before combining. Flour clumps if it is not fully whisked into the liquid, leaving lumps in the thickened sauce. Stirring until smooth lets the flour hydrate evenly so the sauce thickens uniformly and coats the vegetables.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, onion, cauliflower, pepper, vinegar, mustard, flour):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, cauliflower, pepper, vinegar, mustard, flour. 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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