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Mixed Pickle

A fermented pickle made from cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, string beans, peppers, onions, and spices in a vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber 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 Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the cabbage and cauliflower, and cut the cucumbers as described.

  2. Boil the string beans in salted water until tender.

  3. Combine all vegetables in a large bowl.

  4. Pour a strong brine over the vegetables.

  5. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

  6. Drain or squeeze the vegetables well.

Make the pickle

  1. In a separate pot, heat the vinegar.

  2. Add cayenne pepper, ground white pepper, turmeric powder, whole mustard seed, and alum to the vinegar.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the vegetables.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool.

  5. Stir in the ground mustard thoroughly.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Cucumber + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and stays crisp-textured after brining.
Cauliflower
Adds firm, crunchy pieces that hold their shape in the vinegar.
Cucumbers
Provide crisp texture and absorb the brine and vinegar flavor.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Whole mustard seed
Adds pungent flavor and aroma to the hot vinegar.
Ground mustard
Thickens and deepens the sharp mustard flavor of the pickle.

The step that matters

Drain or squeeze the vegetables well. Excess brine left on the vegetables dilutes the hot vinegar mixture and weakens its acidity, which can leave the pickle less preserved and watery.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, beans, pepper, onion, vinegar):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, beans, pepper, onion, vinegar. 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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