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Ragan Pickle

A fermented pickle of cabbage, tomatoes, onions, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Ragan Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Cook

  1. Boil all ingredients together, stirring well, for 2 hours.

  2. Remove from heat and add the spices.

Jar and store

  1. Transfer to air‑tight jars.

  2. Store in a cool, dry place.

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. Turmeric + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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, becoming tender and body-rich as it simmers.
Green tomatoes
Adds tartness and body, thickening the mixture as they break down during cooking.
Onions
Contribute savoury sweetness and aroma that deepen as they cook down.
Best vinegar
Provides the acidity that flavours the pickle and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness and rounds out the flavour.
White mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Add the spices after removing from heat. Volatile aromatic compounds in spices like allspice and cloves fade with prolonged heating. Adding them off the heat keeps more of their fragrance and flavour in the finished pickle.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, tomato, vinegar, sugar, pepper, turmeric, celery):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cauliflowerfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, tomato, vinegar, sugar, pepper, turmeric, celery. 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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