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Mixed Mustard Pickles

Pickled mixed vegetables with a mustard and turmeric dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber 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 Mustard Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle 2 cups of coarse sea salt over the vegetables and let them stand overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain the vegetables.

Make the dressing

  1. Heat 3 quarts of vinegar and 4½ cups of sugar to a boil.

  2. Rub 1½ cups of flour, 3 tablespoons of turmeric, and 15 tablespoons of mustard with cold water to make a smooth paste.

  3. Add 6 tablespoons of butter to the vinegar mixture and stir in the paste.

Cook and pack

  1. Pour the dressing over the mixed vegetables and bring to a boil.

  2. Pack the pickles into crocks or cans.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 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

Cauliflower
Forms the firm, crisp body of the pickle that holds up in the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the dressing.
Flour
Thickens the dressing into a smooth, cohesive sauce that coats the vegetables.
Mustard
Adds the sharp, pungent flavor that defines this pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the dressing its bright yellow color and mild earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Pasting the flour and spices smooth. Flour and mustard lumped into the hot dressing stay as dry clumps. Rubbing them with cold water first hydrates the starch gradually, so it can thicken evenly when stirred in.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, cucumber, pepper, tomato, beans, vinegar, flour. 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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