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India Pickles

A mixed pickle made by boiling vinegar, salt, ginger, mace, onions, and sugar, then adding spices and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

India Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. Mix vinegar, salt, ginger, mace, onions, and brown sugar in a large pot, then bring the mixture to a boil and let it cool.

  2. Transfer the cooled mixture to a stone jar.

Add the spices and rest

  1. In a small bowl, mix curry powder, cayenne pepper, white pepper, mustard, and turmeric with a little vinegar until smooth.

  2. Add this mixture to the jar without heating it.

  3. Stir the contents of the jar every morning for three weeks.

  4. Add small cucumbers, onions, cauliflower, or any other pickling vegetables as desired.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 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

Vinegar
Acts as the pickling liquid, preserving the vegetables and giving the pickle its sharp acidity.
Salt
Seasons the brine and draws moisture from the vegetables, helping them stay firm and preserved.
Mustard
Adds pungent heat and sharpness that deepens the flavour of the spiced brine.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow colour and a mild earthy bitterness.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and a little molasses depth.

The step that matters

Adding the spice mixture without heating it. Heating the curry, cayenne, mustard and turmeric can dull their aromas and turn bitter. Adding them cold to the cooled brine keeps their flavour fresh and bright over the three weeks of resting.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, ginger, mace, onion, sugar, pepper, mustard):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger, mace, onion, sugar, pepper, mustard. 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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