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Mustard Pickles

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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

Brine the vegetables

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

  2. Make a brine with water and salt.

  3. Pour the brine over the vegetables and let stand for 24 hours.

  4. Heat the mixture just enough to scald.

  5. Drain the mixture in a colander.

Make the mustard sauce

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, eggs, ground mustard, turmeric, and enough cold vinegar to make a smooth paste.

  2. Add sugar and sufficient vinegar to make a total of 2 quarts.

  3. Boil the mixture until it thickens and is smooth, stirring constantly.

  4. Add the vegetables 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 + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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

Eggs
Bind the sauce and add richness and body as they set when cooked.
Flour
Thickens the mustard sauce so it becomes smooth and coats the vegetables.
Ground mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickles their characteristic yellow colour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the mustard sauce while stirring constantly. Flour and egg thickeners can scorch on the bottom or form lumps if heated unevenly. Constant stirring keeps the paste smooth and lets the starch thicken evenly as it boils.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, pepper, flour, egg, mustard):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, pepper, flour, egg, mustard. 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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