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Mustard Pickles

A mixed pickle of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, cauliflower, and peppers flavored with mustard, turmeric, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Mustard Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the vegetables

  1. Combine cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, cauliflower, and peppers in a large bowl.

  2. Make a brine with water and salt and pour it over the vegetables.

  3. Cover and let stand for 24 hours.

Make the mustard sauce

  1. Scald the mixture, then drain in a colander.

  2. In a pot, mix flour, mustard, turmeric, and enough vinegar to form a smooth paste.

  3. Add sugar and sufficient vinegar to make 2 quarts total.

  4. Boil until thick and smooth, stirring constantly.

  5. Add the drained vegetables to the mixture and heat through.

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. Cauliflower + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, firm texture that remains after brining and cooking.
Green tomatoes
Add tart acidity and body to the pickled vegetables.
Flour
Thickens the vinegar sauce into a smooth, cohesive coating.
Mustard
Gives the sauce its sharp, pungent flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Cauliflower
Adds bulk and a firm bite that holds up to the hot sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce until thick and smooth. Flour must be fully cooked and the mixture stirred constantly, or it can scorch on the bottom and stay pasty, leaving the sauce lumpy and with a raw floury taste.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, pepper, flour, mustard, 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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