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Mixed Pickles

A pickled vegetable mixture of tomatoes, beans, cabbage, onions, cucumber pickles, cauliflower, peppers, and celery in a vinegar-based brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine the green tomatoes, green beans, cabbage, small onions, cucumber pickles, cauliflower, peppers, and celery in a large vessel.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the cider vinegar, sugar, salt, water, flour, mustard, and turmeric.

  2. Pour the mixture over the vegetables and stir well.

Cook

  1. Cook the mixture over medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Green beans + cauliflowertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together75 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the vinegar mixture so it clings to the vegetables instead of running off.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the sweetness and acidity of the pickle.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle's flavor.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow color and a mild, earthy aroma.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar and rounds out the flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture while it cooks. Flour settles and can scorch on the bottom of the pot over medium heat. Stirring keeps it suspended and evenly thickened, so the sauce doesn't turn lumpy or burnt.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, green beans, cabbage, cucumber, cauliflower, pepper, celery. 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

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