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Indian Pickle

A fermented vegetable pickle made with cabbage, cauliflower, horseradish, ginger, onions, garlic, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Indian Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the vegetables

  1. Slice the cabbage and cauliflower, then sprinkle salt over them in a large dish or wooden tub. Set aside for 48 hours.

Pack and cover with vinegar

  1. After 48 hours, dry the vegetables and place them in a large jar with garlic and other seasonings.

  2. Boil the vinegar and pour it over the vegetables, ensuring they are well covered.

  3. Once the mixture is cold, cover the jar. As other vegetables ripen, wash them in cold vinegar, wipe them, and add them to the jar, ensuring they are covered by vinegar.

  4. If more vinegar is needed, boil it before adding to the jar.

Combine and repack

  1. When all vegetables are collected, mix them thoroughly in a large bowl.

  2. Pack the vegetables into smaller jars without vinegar.

  3. Boil the vinegar again, adding more as needed to fill the jars, and include additional seasonings.

  4. Bring to a boil and pour over the packed vegetables. Cover when cold.

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. Shallot + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cauliflower + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

White cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and gives it a crisp texture after salting.
Cauliflower
Adds firm texture and absorbs the vinegar brine as it sits.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that deepens as the pickle matures.
Mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent flavor that mellows during pickling.

The step that matters

Covering the vegetables with vinegar. Vegetables exposed to air can spoil or mold, so keeping every piece fully submerged in acidic vinegar is what preserves the pickle.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, shallot, cauliflower, horseradish, ginger, pepper, allspice):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, shallot, cauliflower, horseradish, ginger, pepper, allspice. 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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