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Mock Olives

A pickled plum preserved in a vinegar and mustard seed brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mock Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the plums

  1. Heat vinegar, mustard seed, and salt until boiling.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over green plums.

  3. Let sit overnight.

Drain and scald

  1. Pour off the vinegar.

  2. Boil the vinegar again.

  3. Scald the plums once more.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Plum + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,266 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Vinegar + plumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Green plums
Provide the firm, tart flesh that takes on the brine and becomes the olive-like texture.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that flavors the plums and helps preserve them.
Mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp aroma that infuses into the vinegar.

The step that matters

Scald the plums once more. Heat softens the fruit's cell walls, so a brief scald firms and seasons the plums. Holding them in hot liquid too long turns them mushy.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, mustard, olive):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, olive. 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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