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Virginia Mixed Pickle

A preserved mixture of green tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, horseradish, onions, cucumbers, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and cucumber 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 ↓

Virginia Mixed Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, green pepper, cabbage, horseradish, white onions, and cucumbers with a large knife.

  2. Mix all the chopped ingredients in a granite or stone bowl.

  3. Sprinkle 1 pint of coarse sea salt over the mixture and let it stand overnight.

  4. Place the mixture in a bag to drain well.

  5. Pour weak vinegar over the drained mixture and let it stand overnight.

  6. Press out all the vinegar.

Make the pickle and jar it

  1. In a pot, combine 2 pounds of light brown sugar, 1 gallon of strong apple vinegar, 1 ounce of celery seed, 2 ounces of turmeric, and 2 ounces of white mustard seed.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly for 45 minutes.

  3. Put the pickle in jars and cover with the vinegar.

  4. Seal the jars tightly.

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. Horseradish + cucumbertop 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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 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

Green tomatoes
Forms the bulk of the pickle and provides firm, tart pieces that hold their shape.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the chopped vegetables, firming them and reducing moisture before pickling.
Strong apple vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp, tangy flavor.
Light brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and adds depth of flavor.
White mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp flavor that mellows during the slow boil.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its golden color and a mild, earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Pressing out the salted vegetables and vinegar. Salt and the overnight draining remove much of the vegetables' water. If they are not drained and pressed well, the excess liquid dilutes the vinegar and brine, which can weaken preservation and leave the pickle watery.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, horseradish, onion, cucumber, vinegar, 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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