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Mustard Pickles

A mixed vegetable pickle made with green tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cauliflower, cabbage, green peppers, mustard, turmeric, sugar, flour, vinegar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine green tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cauliflower, cabbage, and green peppers in a bowl.

  2. Let the mixture sit in light brine for 24 hours.

  3. Boil the mixture in new brine for 10 minutes, then drain for 1 hour.

Make the mustard sauce

  1. In a separate bowl, mix mustard, turmeric, sugar, and flour with enough water to form a paste.

  2. Add vinegar and water to the paste and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the drained pickles and cook until heated through.

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. Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk and firm texture of the pickle.
Mustard
Adds the sharp, pungent flavour that defines the pickle.
Flour
Thickens the vinegar and mustard mixture into a smooth sauce.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the flavour.
Turmeric powder
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow colour.

The step that matters

Thickening the mustard paste. Flour must be fully mixed into the water before the vinegar is added, otherwise lumps form. Bringing the sauce to a boil lets the starch swell and thicken it evenly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, cucumber, cauliflower, cabbage, pepper, mustard, 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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