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English Pickle

A pickled mixture of cauliflower, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and spices, preserved in vinegar and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

English Pickle

6 quarts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Salt tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers.

  2. Let them stand for 24 hours.

  3. Divide cauliflower and salt it separately.

  4. Drain cauliflower thoroughly.

  5. Add peppers and place the vegetables in a porcelain kettle.

  6. Cover with cold vinegar.

  7. Boil for 10 minutes.

  8. Drain again.

  9. Let cool.

Make the dressing and bottle

  1. Mix English mustard, cloves, cinnamon, flour, and turmeric.

  2. Smooth the mixture with 3 pints of vinegar.

  3. Cook the mixture thoroughly.

  4. Add oil when done and stir the dressing through the pickles, adding the mustard seed.

  5. Bottle the mixture. This makes 6 quarts.

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. 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
Firm vegetable base that holds its shape through salting and boiling.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent heat and sharp flavor to the dressing.
English mustard
Supplies sharp, pungent flavor to the thickened dressing.
Flour
Thickens the spiced dressing so it coats the vegetables.
Cucumbers
Provide crisp texture that softens slightly through salting.
Green tomatoes
Add tartness and body to the pickle mixture.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture thoroughly. Flour thickens the dressing only when it is fully cooked; undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin, cloudy sauce that does not coat the vegetables well.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, cucumber, tomato, pepper, mustard, turmeric, clove. 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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