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Pickles Mixed

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, cauliflower, and onions flavored with mustard seed, pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, vinegar, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Pickles Mixed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Pack cucumbers, cauliflower, and onions in salt overnight, using 1 cup of salt to mix through them.

  2. In the morning, drain the vegetables and soak them in fresh water for 1-2 days, changing the water twice daily until they are fresh.

Pickle

  1. Drain the vegetables thoroughly and place them in a large jar, layering with the spices.

  2. Boil the vinegar and brown sugar together, then pour the hot mixture over the vegetables.

  3. Repeat this process for three consecutive mornings.

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 + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acid that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and adds depth of flavour.
Cauliflower
Forms the firm, crisp texture that holds up through the pickling process.
Small onions
Add sweetness and a soft, mellow bite to the mixed pickle.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that defines the pickle's character.

The step that matters

Draining and soaking the vegetables before pickling. Salt and soaking draw out water and excess salt; if the vegetables are not drained thoroughly, extra water dilutes the vinegar and the pickle can turn out soft or flavourless.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cauliflower, mustard, pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cauliflower, mustard, pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, vinegar. 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.

More mixed pickles recipes

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