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Spanish Pickles

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and spices in vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice all the vegetables using a cabbage slicer.

  2. Soak each vegetable separately in a weak brine for 1-2 hours, then drain using cheesecloth.

  3. Layer the vegetables in a kettle.

Make the pickle

  1. Mix the dry mustard with cold vinegar and turmeric, then gradually add boiling vinegar and sugar.

  2. Add one-third of the vegetables to the kettle, pour on some vinegar, then add another third, and repeat.

  3. If the mixture is too moist, do not use all the vinegar.

  4. Boil slowly until tender, then pack into hot glass jars.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle and their tartness balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Cider vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Dry mustard
Contributes a pungent, sharp flavour that defines the pickle's character.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a firm texture that holds up during long simmering.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until tender. Simmering gently softens the vegetables evenly while keeping them intact. Boiling hard can break them down and make the pickle mushy, while undercooking leaves them raw and crisp.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cabbage, onion, cider, vinegar, mustard, celery):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, onion, cider, vinegar, mustard, celery. 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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