Name: Artichoke Yelloiv Pickle
Ingredients: 1 large bottle of mustard; 1½ pints of sweet oil; 4 tablespoons of powdered spice (mace, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves); 4 tablespoons of brown sugar; 1 pound of white mustard seed; 1 ounce of turmeric; chopped garlic (to taste); ½ pound grated horseradish; vinegar (enough to reduce to a thin paste)

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Artichoke Yelloiv Pickle

Ingredients

1 large bottle of mustard
1½ pints of sweet oil
4 tablespoons of powdered spice (mace, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves)
4 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 pound of white mustard seed
1 ounce of turmeric
chopped garlic (to taste)
½ pound grated horseradish
vinegar (enough to reduce to a thin paste)

Directions

Make the dressing

Mix all ingredients like salad dressing.
If the vinegar is too sharp, dilute it with water.

Pack and cook

Pour the mixture over the artichokes in a two-gallon jar.
Cover the jar with a plate.
Boil the jar in water for 5 to 6 hours.

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.

Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,928 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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

Sweet oil: Carries the spices and mustard, giving the dressing a smooth, rich body.
White mustard seed: Adds sharp pungency and body to the dressing.
Horseradish: Adds sharp, pungent heat that mellows during the long cooking.
Vinegar: Provides acidity that sharpens the pickle and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Turmeric: Gives the pickle its yellow colour and a mild earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the jar in water for 5 to 6 hours. The long, gentle heat in a water bath lets the dressing penetrate the artichokes and cooks the pickle through. Too little time leaves it raw-tasting and less safely preserved.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, allspice, nutmeg, clove, sugar, turmeric, garlic):

Cinnamonfits better
Cardamomfits better
Cuminfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, allspice, nutmeg, clove, sugar, turmeric, garlic. 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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Artichoke Yelloiv Pickle