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Mustard Pickle

A pickled vegetable mixture flavored with mustard, turmeric, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber 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 Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut all vegetables into small pieces and soak in brine for 24 hours.

  2. Bring the brine to a boiling point and drain well.

Make the sauce

  1. In a kettle, scald 2 quarts of vinegar.

  2. Mix 1 cup sugar, 1 ounce flour, ¼ pound mustard, and 3 cents worth turmeric with 1 pint of vinegar.

  3. Add this mixture to the scalding vinegar and cook until thickened.

Combine

  1. Combine the thickened mixture with the drained vegetables.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Flour
Thickens the vinegar mixture so it becomes a cohesive sauce that coats the vegetables.
Mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the pickle.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.
Turmeric
Adds yellow color and an earthy aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Add the mixture to the scalding vinegar and cook until thickened. Flour thickens only as its starch gelatinizes in hot liquid, and stirring prevents lumps. Undercooking leaves the sauce thin and floury, while the mixture can scorch on the bottom if not stirred.

Swap the lima beans

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, cucumber, onion, tomato, pepper, egg, 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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