Skip to main content
Main

Mixed Pickles

A pickled mixture of tomatoes, celery, onions, peppers, cabbage, and cucumber in a vinegar and sugar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine chopped green and ripe tomatoes, celery, onions, sweet red peppers, green peppers, cabbage, and cucumber in a large bowl.

  2. Sprinkle with ½ cup coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

  3. Drain the mixture well in the morning.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. In a pot, combine 3 pints vinegar, 2 pounds dark brown sugar, 1 teaspoon black pepper, and 1 teaspoon mustard.

  2. Cook the mixture over medium heat until clear, about 1 hour.

  3. Seal in jars for winter use.

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

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

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 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

Green and ripe tomatoes
Provide the bulk and juicy body that makes up most of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and concentrating their flavor before cooking.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp tang.
Dark brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar.
Onions
Add savory aroma and flavor that build the base of the relish.

The step that matters

Draining after the overnight salting. Salt draws out a large amount of liquid; draining it well keeps the pickle from becoming watery and helps it set to the right texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, celery, pepper, cabbage, cucumber, vinegar, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, pepper, cabbage, cucumber, vinegar, sugar. 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 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesRed CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipes