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Heath Piccalilli

A pickled relish of green tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, onions, celery, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Heath Piccalilli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, onions, and celery finely.

  2. Mix with coarse salt and let stand for 12 hours.

  3. Drain thoroughly and scald in 2 quarts of vinegar.

  4. Drain again and pack into jars.

Pour and cover

  1. Once cold, pour over 2 quarts of vinegar mixed with horseradish, mace, cinnamon, allspice, mustard, cayenne, celery seed, and mustard seed.

  2. Cover with a plate to keep the mixture submerged in vinegar, then cover the jars with a thick cloth.

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 + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the chopped vegetable base and a tart, firm texture.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk that holds its texture through the vinegar pickling.
Cucumbers
Contribute crisp texture and fresh body to the pickled mixture.
Onions
Add savory flavour and aroma that mellow during pickling.
Coarse salt
Draws water out of the chopped vegetables, firming them and concentrating flavour.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the piccalilli its sharp flavour.

The step that matters

Draining after the salt rest. The vegetables must be drained thoroughly after standing in salt, because leftover brine dilutes the vinegar and affects both flavour and how well the pickle keeps.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cabbage, cucumber, onion, celery, vinegar, horseradish):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, cucumber, onion, celery, vinegar, horseradish. 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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