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Mustard Pickles

A pickled mixture of cauliflower, onions, nasturtiums, green tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and peppers in a mustard-flavored brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber 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 Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the vegetables

  1. Combine equal quantities of cauliflower, small onions, nasturtiums, sliced green tomatoes, small cucumbers, and beans in a bowl.

  2. Cover the vegetables with strong salt and water.

  3. Scald the brine.

  4. Dissolve a small bit of alum in the brine.

  5. Pour the brine over the vegetables in the morning.

  6. When the brine is cold, drain the vegetables thoroughly.

Make the pickling sauce

  1. In a pot, combine 1 gallon of vinegar and 1 cup of brown sugar.

  2. Scald the vinegar and sugar mixture well.

  3. Stir in 3 tablespoons of flour, ¼ pound of ground mustard, a little turmeric, allspice, cloves, and 1 pint of grated horseradish.

Combine and pickle

  1. Cut up 12 small red peppers.

  2. Mix the peppers with the vegetables.

  3. Pour the scalded vinegar mixture over the vegetables.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 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

Cauliflower
Forms the firm, crisp bulk of the pickle that holds up after brining.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and adds depth to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the scalded vinegar mixture so it clings to the vegetables.
Ground mustard
Adds the characteristic pungent mustard flavour to the sauce.
Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables during brining, helping them stay crisp.

The step that matters

Draining the vegetables after the brine cools. Salt brine draws water out of the vegetables. If they are not drained thoroughly, extra water dilutes the vinegar sauce and makes the pickle watery and less crisp.

Swap the onion

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

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

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