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Spanish Pickle

A pickled cucumber and tomato relish seasoned with mustard seeds, celery seed, turmeric, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Spanish Pickle

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak cucumbers in salt water strong enough to hold up an egg.

  2. Slice tomatoes and onions thinly.

Make the pickle

  1. Mix cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, mustard seeds, celery seed, turmeric, mustard, brown sugar, and salt.

  2. Cook the mixture in vinegar for 20 minutes.

  3. Put the mixture into jars for storage.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 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

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, watery vegetable base of the pickle.
Green tomatoes
Add bulk and a tart flavor to the pickle.
Onions
Add savory flavor and body to the pickle.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
White mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavor to the pickle.

The step that matters

Soak cucumbers in salt water. The brine must be strong enough to draw water out of the cucumbers. This firms their texture and keeps them crisp during cooking. A weak brine leaves the pickle soft.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, tomato, mustard, celery, turmeric, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Cauliflowerfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, mustard, celery, turmeric, sugar, vinegar. 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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