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Turmeric Pickle

A pickled cucumber and onion relish flavored with allspice, mustard, black pepper, brown sugar, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Turmeric Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice cucumbers and onions into equal parts and soak them in saltwater for three days, changing the water daily.

  2. Scald the cucumbers and onions in vinegar.

Make the spiced brine

  1. Combine 3 gallons of vinegar with 1 cup each of allspice, mustard, and black pepper, and 2 pounds of brown sugar in a large jar.

  2. Add enough turmeric to color the mixture yellow.

Pack and cover

  1. Layer the cucumbers and onions in the jar, adding 2 teaspoons of sweet oil and a layer of spices between each layer.

  2. Cover with cold vinegar and stir frequently.

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 + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cucumber + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Main vegetable that becomes crisp-tender and absorbs the pickling flavors.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and body that softens during pickling.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the flavor.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and depth.
Salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and onions, firming their texture before pickling.

The step that matters

Soaking in saltwater for three days. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers and onions through osmosis, which firms their texture so they stay crisp rather than turning soft in the vinegar brine.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, allspice, mustard, pepper, sugar, turmeric):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, allspice, mustard, pepper, sugar, 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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