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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

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine tiny whole cucumbers, sliced large cucumbers, sliced green tomatoes, small button onions, cauliflower florets, and chopped green peppers in a large bowl.

  2. Make a brine by mixing 4 quarts of water with 1 pint of coarse sea salt.

  3. Pour the brine over the vegetables and let it stand covered for 24 hours.

  4. After 24 hours, scald the mixture and drain it in a colander.

Make the mustard sauce

  1. In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of flour, 6 tablespoons of mustard, and 1 tablespoon of turmeric with enough vinegar to form a smooth paste.

  2. Add 1 cup of granulated sugar and enough vinegar to make a total of 2 quarts.

  3. Boil this mixture until thick and smooth, stirring constantly.

Combine and heat

  1. Add the drained vegetables to the thickened mixture and heat them 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

Cauliflower
Provides firm, crisp texture that holds up in the thick sauce.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the vinegar mixture into a smooth, stable sauce.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that defines the pickle's taste.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow color and mild earthy aroma.
Granulated sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Cucumbers
Form the main vegetable body that absorbs the sauce flavors.

The step that matters

Boil the flour mixture until thick and smooth, stirring constantly. Flour thickens only when boiled, and it scorches or forms lumps if left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the sauce turns smooth and evenly thick before the vegetables go in.

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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