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Yellow Pickle

A pickled cabbage and vegetable mixture preserved in a turmeric‑infused vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Yellow Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbages in half.

  2. Cover the cabbages thickly with coarse sea salt and let the salted cabbages stand overnight.

  3. Scald the cabbages the next day.

  4. Spread the cabbages on a cloth to dry, turning them frequently.

Colour the cabbage

  1. Soak the well-dried cabbages in plain vinegar made very yellow with turmeric for one to two days.

  2. Drain the cabbages when they are a good yellow.

Pickle and age

  1. In a large bowl, combine 2 gallons of vinegar, 3 pounds of brown sugar, clove garlic, horseradish, white mustard seed, black pepper, turmeric in a bag, mace, celery seed, white ginger, and oil of cloves.

  2. Place the drained cabbages in spiced vinegar along with cucumbers and other prepared vegetables.

  3. Keep the jar in the sun, covered tightly, and stir the pickle frequently.

  4. The pickle will be ready for use in four to five months.

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 + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turmeric + horseradishtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together437 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turmeric + clovetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cucumber + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Firm early york cabbages
Form the bulk of the pickle and absorb the yellow colour and spiced vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage so it dries and becomes crisp.
Turmeric
Gives the cabbage its bright yellow colour.
2 gallons of vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavour.
3 pounds of brown sugar
Balances the sharp acidity with sweetness and adds depth.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Drying the cabbage before soaking. Cabbage left damp dilutes the yellow vinegar and can keep the pickle from taking on colour evenly. Turning it while it dries lets surface moisture evaporate so the colour and vinegar penetrate well.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, vinegar, turmeric, cucumber, sugar, garlic, horseradish):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, turmeric, cucumber, sugar, garlic, 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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