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Mixed Yellow Pickles

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, onion, horseradish, beans, tomatoes, mustard seeds, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mixed Yellow Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine cucumbers, green peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, onion, horseradish, green beans, and green tomatoes in a large bowl.

  2. Soak the mixture in a strong brine for 24 hours.

  3. Drain for 3 hours, then sprinkle in black and white mustard seeds and ground pepper.

Pickle

  1. Add enough vinegar to cover and bring to a boil, adding a little alum.

  2. Drain again and let cool.

  3. Mix in ground mustard and cover with cider vinegar.

  4. Add turmeric to achieve desired color.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cauliflower + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, firm bulk of the pickle that holds texture after brining.
Black and white mustard seeds
Add sharp, pungent flavor that develops as the seeds release their compounds in vinegar.
Cauliflower
Adds crunchy texture and absorbs the brine and vinegar flavors.
Cabbage
Adds crunchy texture and bulk that holds up well to brining.
Horseradish
Contributes sharp, pungent heat that mellows somewhat during pickling.
Ground mustard
Adds pungency and helps thicken and flavor the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking in strong brine. Salt draws water out of the vegetables through osmosis, firming them and removing excess moisture so they stay crisp and the vinegar is not diluted. Soaking for the full time matters for this firming effect.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, horseradish, green beans, tomato):

  1. Broccolifits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, horseradish, green beans, tomato. 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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