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Indian Pickles

A vinegar-based pickle with ginger, spices, and optional vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Indian Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. In a large pot, combine vinegar, salt, ginger, mace, cayenne pepper, white pepper, and mustard seed. Mix well and bring to a boil.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool, then transfer it to a jar.

Add the mustard paste and vegetables

  1. In a small bowl, mix mustard flour and turmeric powder with a little cold vinegar until smooth.

  2. Add this mixture to the cooled vinegar mixture.

  3. Once cooled, add your choice of vegetables.

  4. For added flavor, stir in curry powder if desired.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Flour + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard seed
Provides the sharp, pungent bite that defines the pickling liquid.
Mustard flour
Thickens the liquid slightly and adds a sharp mustard flavor.
Turmeric powder
Adds yellow colour and a mild earthy, bitter flavor.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that gives the pickling liquid its spicy character.
Vinegar
Acts as the acidic base that preserves and sharpens the vegetables.

The step that matters

Cool the vinegar mixture before adding the mustard paste and vegetables. Mustard flour and turmeric mixed into hot liquid can clump and lose their pungency, and hot liquid can soften vegetables, so letting the mixture cool first helps the flavors blend smoothly and keeps the vegetables crisp.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, ginger, mace, pepper, mustard, flour, turmeric):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger, mace, pepper, mustard, flour, turmeric. 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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