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French Pickles

A pickled mixture of tomatoes, onions, and cauliflower in a seasoned vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

French Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the tomatoes and onions, and combine them with cauliflower in a large bowl.

  2. Sprinkle 1 pint of coarse sea salt over the vegetables and let them sit overnight.

  3. Drain the liquid in the morning.

Cook and spice

  1. Boil the tomatoes, onions, and cauliflower in 2 quarts of water and 1 quart of vinegar for 15-20 minutes.

  2. Drain the mixture in a colander.

  3. In a kettle, combine the drained vegetables with 7 pints of vinegar, 2 pounds of brown sugar, ½ tablespoon of white mustard seed, 2 tablespoons of ground allspice, 2 tablespoons of cloves, 2 tablespoons of ginger, 2 tablespoons of cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of ground mustard, and ½ tablespoon of cayenne pepper.

  4. Boil the mixture for another 15-20 minutes, stirring carefully to avoid burning.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  5. Cauliflower + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together105 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Supply the bulk of the pickle and soften into a tender, juicy body as they cook.
Onions
Add bulk and mild sweetness that mellows during long boiling.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds depth through caramel notes.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and reducing their moisture before cooking.
Ground allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes that flavour the pickle.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for another 15-20 minutes, stirring carefully to avoid burning.. Sugar in the thick, acidic mixture can scorch on the bottom of the kettle, leaving a bitter taste. Frequent gentle stirring keeps the sugars from caramelising too far and sticking.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, mustard, allspice, clove):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, mustard, allspice, clove. 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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