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Mustard Pickles

A pickled vegetable mix flavored with mustard, vinegar, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Prepare

  1. Soak the cucumbers, onions, cauliflower, tomatoes, and peppers in brine and drain.

Make the dressing

  1. In a pot, combine the vinegar and brown sugar, and boil for five minutes.

  2. Skim the mixture, then mix the mustard and flour together.

  3. Slowly pour the hot vinegar mixture onto the mustard and flour, stirring until smooth.

Pack and rest

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the pickles.

  2. Let the pickles sit for three weeks before using.

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. 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

Ground mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavour that defines the pickle.
Flour
Thickens the hot vinegar mixture into a smooth, coating sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the flavour.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the hot vinegar mixture onto the mustard and flour, stirring until smooth. Adding hot liquid all at once to flour can form lumps that do not dissolve. Pouring slowly while stirring lets the starch disperse evenly and thicken into a smooth sauce.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cauliflower, tomato, pepper, vinegar, sugar, flour. 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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