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India Pickle

A pickled vegetable mixture of cucumbers, onions, and cauliflower in a spiced vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

India Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. In a large pot, combine vinegar, mustard, black pepper, cloves, allspice, turmeric, ginger, cayenne pepper, salt, and sugar.

  2. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool, then add the chopped vegetables.

Store and rest

  1. Cover the mixture closely.

  2. If the liquid appears thin after three weeks, boil again and add more mustard.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavour.
Mustard
Adds pungent flavour and helps thicken the liquid when boiled again.
Cucumbers
Main vegetable that softens and absorbs the spiced, acidic liquid.
Cauliflower
Main vegetable that takes on the spiced vinegar flavour while keeping some crunch.
Onions
Main vegetable that adds sweetness and pungency as it mellows in the brine.

The step that matters

Covering the mixture closely after adding the vegetables. A tight cover keeps air and dust out and limits evaporation, so the vegetables stay submerged in the acidic liquid and the pickle keeps well during the long rest.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, clove, allspice, turmeric, ginger, sugar):

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, clove, allspice, turmeric, ginger, sugar. 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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