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Hotch Potch Pickle

A pickled mix of cabbage, onions, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes seasoned with salt, vinegar, sugar, cloves, mustard seed, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hotch Potch Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the cabbage, onions, cucumbers, green peppers, and green tomatoes finely.

  2. Cover the chopped ingredients with ½ pint of coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

  3. Place the mixture in a bag to drain.

Brine and season

  1. Cover with weak vinegar and let stand for 24 hours.

  2. The next morning, drain off the vinegar.

  3. For every gallon of pickle, add ½ pound of sugar, 12 cloves, 1 ounce of white mustard seed, and 1 ounce of celery seed.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a preserving kettle with strong vinegar and boil for 30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Cabbage
Adds bulk and a firm crunch that holds its texture through the long boil.
Green tomatoes
Provide body and a tart flavor that balances the sugar and vinegar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that offsets the sharpness of the vinegar and salt.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and concentrating flavor before pickling.
Strong vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp taste.
White mustard seed
Adds a pungent, earthy aroma and sharp bite to the pickle.

The step that matters

Draining after the salt and vinegar soak. Salt and vinegar draw out a lot of liquid. Draining well before adding sugar and spices keeps the pickle from being watery and lets the strong vinegar set its flavor and acidity.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cucumber, pepper, tomato, vinegar, sugar, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cucumber, pepper, tomato, vinegar, sugar, clove. 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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