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Dessert

French Pickle

A pickled mixture of green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and cucumbers seasoned with vinegar, sugar, 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 mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickle mixture

  1. Combine the green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and cucumbers in a large kettle.

  2. Add the strong vinegar, white sugar, cinnamon, mustard, allspice, black pepper, celery seeds, and dissolved turmeric.

Cook and jar

  1. Cook the mixture well, adding more vinegar if it seems too thick.

  2. Add salt if desired.

  3. Once cooked, drain the pickles well and stir them into the kettle until well combined.

  4. Transfer to stone jars and do not cover until cool.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the chopped vegetable base and a tart, firm texture when cooked.
Cabbage
Adds crisp body and bulk that holds its texture through long cooking.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and sweetness that mellows as they cook.
Cucumbers
Add a mild, fresh crunch and moisture to the chopped mixture.
Strong vinegar
Supplies the acidity that gives the pickle its sharp flavor and preserving character.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture well, adding more vinegar if it seems too thick. The vegetables must be cooked long enough to soften and blend with the spices, and the vinegar keeps the mixture from becoming too thick and scorching on the bottom of the kettle. Under-cooking leaves the raw vegetables harsh and the mixture poorly combined.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, cucumber, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, mustard):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, cucumber, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, mustard. 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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