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Gueen Pickles

A pickling recipe using a mix of vegetables, spices, and vinegar boiled and stored in a cool, dark place.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and cauliflower share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34 recipes. Both carry 2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Gueen Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Combine salt, cayenne pepper, ginger, white pepper, shallots, and cider vinegar in a pot.

  2. Boil briefly and cool.

  3. Pour the mixture over any fresh, washed vegetables or fruits you want to pickle.

  4. Cover tightly.

  5. Store in a cool, dark place.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the cauliflowers, green peppers, green tomatoes, green cucumbers, and small onions about half an inch thick.

  2. Sprinkle with salt.

  3. Layer with tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers.

  4. Boil the cauliflower for about five minutes.

  5. Let it sit overnight.

  6. Strain all vegetables well to remove excess water.

Make the seasoning and pack

  1. In a separate pot, combine mustard seed, allspice, black pepper, beef brine, vinegar, and curry powder.

  2. Boil hard for fifteen minutes.

  3. Pour the seasoning over the vegetables.

  4. If too thick, add more vinegar.

  5. Mix mustard with vinegar and place spices in a tightly tied bag.

  6. Boil with the mustard and vinegar.

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. Shallot + cauliflowertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Ginger + shallottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 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

Cauliflowers
Forms the firm, crisp bulk of the pickle that holds its texture in brine.
Green tomatoes
Adds acidity and body, and releases water that the salting draws out.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp flavour that blooms when boiled in vinegar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Strain the vegetables well. Salted vegetables release water; if excess liquid stays in the jars it dilutes the spiced vinegar and weakens its preserving acidity, so the pickle can spoil or turn watery.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, ginger, shallot, cider, vinegar, cauliflower, tomato):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, ginger, shallot, cider, vinegar, cauliflower, tomato. 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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