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Mangoes Pickled Whole

Whole mangoes are pickled with garlic, ginger, chilies, cloves, cinnamon, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mangoes Pickled Whole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Peel and divide the mangoes, ensuring they are large enough to easily extract the seeds.

  2. Rub the mangoes with coarse sea salt and expose them to the sun for 2-3 days.

  3. Dry the mangoes with a clean cloth.

Stuff and tie

  1. Stuff each mango with sliced garlic, finely chopped chillies, ginger, cullungee seeds, and a stick of cinnamon.

  2. Tie the mangoes securely with strong sewing cotton.

Jar and sun-cure

  1. Place the mangoes in wide-mouthed bottles or jars and cover them with vinegar.

  2. Cork the bottles well and expose them to the sun for 15-20 days.

  3. The pickle will be ready for use in 3-4 months.

  4. To prevent spoilage, pour 1 tablespoon of mustard oil over the pickle in the bottle.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mango + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Green mangoes
Provide the firm, tart flesh that forms the body of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture from the mangoes and helps preserve them during sun exposure.
Vinegar
Acidifies the pickle, adding sourness and helping to preserve it.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and flavour that infuses the mango during curing.
Dry chillies
Add heat and pungency to the filling.

The step that matters

Drying the mangoes before stuffing. Any surface moisture left on the mangoes can dilute the vinegar and encourage spoilage during the long sun-curing period, so they should be thoroughly dried with a clean cloth first.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, ginger, clove, cinnamon, vinegar):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, ginger, clove, cinnamon, vinegar. 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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