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Mixed Pickle

A vinegar-based pickle made with gherkins, cauliflowers, and other vegetables, flavored with curry powder, mustard, garlic, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 514 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mixed Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Combine vinegar, curry powder, salt, mustard, garlic, turmeric, and red peppers in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the salt and mustard dissolve.

Pickle and store

  1. Pour the hot mixture over gherkins, cauliflowers, or any other vegetables you wish to pickle.

  2. Seal the jars and let them cool before storing in a cool, dark place.

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. Turmeric + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Mustard + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Turmeric + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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.
Mustard
Adds pungency and flavour, and its seeds help thicken and season the liquid.
Curry powder
Supplies the warm spice blend that flavours the pickling liquid.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its pale yellow colour and an earthy, slightly bitter flavour.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savoury depth to the pickling liquid.
Gherkins
Are the main vegetable that absorbs the hot pickling liquid and becomes crisp-tender.

The step that matters

Dissolving the salt and mustard when boiling. Stirring until the salt and mustard fully dissolve ensures an even, well-seasoned liquid. Undissolved mustard can settle and cause uneven flavour and cloudiness in the pickle.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

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

English 3 See all 133 →

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