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Mixed Pickles

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, cauliflower, small onions, and beans in a spiced vinegar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the large cucumbers, green tomatoes, onions, cauliflower, small onions, cucumbers, and beans, placing each in separate dishes.

  2. Soak the vegetables overnight in weak brine, then strain and cook them in weak vinegar until tender.

  3. Drain the vegetables and place them in a crock or jar for pickling.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix 2 gallons of vinegar, 2 cups of flour, 1 pound of mustard, 2 pounds of brown sugar, ½ ounce of celery seed, ½ ounce of turmeric, 1 ounce of cinnamon, and 1 ounce of cloves until smooth with cold vinegar.

  2. Boil the remaining vinegar, then add the paste, stirring until it thickens to the consistency of cream.

Pickle and serve

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the pickles.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Cauliflower
Forms the firm, crisp bulk of the pickle and holds its texture in the vinegar.
Flour
Thickens the mustard-spice paste so the dressing clings to the vegetables.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the sweetness and acidity of the vinegar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow color and a mild, earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Stirring the paste while it thickens. Flour must be fully smooth in cold vinegar before heating, and the mixture must be stirred as it cooks; otherwise lumps form and the dressing thickens unevenly or scorches on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, beans, vinegar, flour, mustard):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, beans, vinegar, flour, 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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