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India Pickle

A vinegar-based pickle with mustard, spices, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

India Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Boil vinegar, mustard, black pepper, cloves, allspice, turmeric, ginger, cayenne pepper, salt, and sugar for 20 minutes.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

Pickle and store

  1. Chop the vegetables and add them to the cooled mixture.

  2. Cover the mixture closely.

  3. If the liquid seems thin after 3 weeks, boil again and add more mustard.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidic liquid that preserves and sharpens the vegetables.
Mustard
Adds pungent flavour and body to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the brine.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that blends into the brine.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and earthy aroma.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that builds in the brine as it stands.

The step that matters

Cooling before adding the vegetables. Adding vegetables to a hot mixture can soften them and cook them unevenly, and the vinegar's effect on texture is weaker when the vegetables are heated. Letting the mixture cool first keeps the vegetables crisp and the pickle stable.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, clove, allspice, turmeric, ginger, sugar):

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, clove, allspice, turmeric, ginger, sugar. 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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