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Mustard Pickle

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, onions, string beans, green tomatoes, and cauliflower boiled in vinegar and seasoned with turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Mustard Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine cucumbers, onions, string beans, green tomatoes, and cauliflower in a large bowl.

  2. Cover the vegetables with salt and water and let them sit overnight.

  3. Drain the vegetables in the morning and cover them with vinegar.

Cook

  1. Boil the vegetables in vinegar for 20 minutes.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix 1 quart of vinegar with turmeric powder about 10 minutes before removing the vegetables from heat.

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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  4. Beans + cauliflowertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Cucumbers
Firm vegetables that hold their crunch through the brine and boiling.
Cauliflower
Firm florets that keep their shape and add bulk and texture.
Green tomatoes
Firm, tart vegetables that add body and a sharp, fresh flavor.
Onions
Sweetness and savory depth that mellow during the long boil.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Turmeric powder
Gives the pickle its yellow color and an earthy, warm aroma.

The step that matters

Boiling the vegetables for 20 minutes. Boiling too long softens the vegetables and turns them mushy, while the acid in the vinegar keeps them from being fully cooked and safely preserved. Watch the timing closely so they stay crisp but tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, beans, tomato, cauliflower, vinegar, turmeric):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, beans, tomato, cauliflower, vinegar, 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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