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Pickled Mangoes

A preserved mango dish pickled with salt, vinegar, spices, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Pickled Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Soak and prepare the mangoes

  1. Soak the mangoes in salt water strong enough to float an egg for two weeks.

  2. Soak them in pure water for two days, changing the water two or three times.

  3. Remove the seeds from the mangoes.

Pickle in vinegar

  1. Layer grape leaves and mangoes in a kettle, covering with leaves.

  2. Add a lump of alum and pour vinegar over the mangoes.

  3. Boil the mixture for 10–15 minutes.

  4. Remove the leaves and let the pickles sit in the vinegar for a week.

Stuff and store

  1. Prepare the stuffing by mixing ginger, black pepper, mace, allspice, turmeric, garlic, horseradish, mustard seeds, and olive oil.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of brown sugar to each mango.

  3. Combine chopped cabbage, small onions, cucumbers, green tomatoes, and chopped imperfect mangoes.

  4. Mix the stuffing thoroughly.

  5. Stuff the mangoes with the mixture.

  6. Tie the stuffed mangoes.

  7. Place the stuffed mangoes in a stone jar and cover with cider vinegar.

  8. Store in a bright, dry place until canned.

  9. After a month, add 3 pounds of brown sugar, adjusting to taste.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mango + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Mangoes
Form the main body of the pickle, absorbing brine and vinegar to become tender and tangy.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the mangoes and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Olive oil
Carries the spices in the stuffing and adds richness and moisture.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savoury depth to the stuffing.
Horseradish
Adds sharp heat and pungency to the stuffing.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boiling the mangoes in vinegar with alum. Boiling for only 10–15 minutes softens the fruit while keeping it firm enough to stuff and tie; overboiling would turn the mangoes mushy and collapse them.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, grape, vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, turmeric):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, grape, vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, turmeric. 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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